Davis homer leads Blue Jays to another win over Yankees
Jonathan Davis needed just one at bat to put his stamp on the Blue Jays late-season run to the playoffs. And man, did he deliver! The outfielder who spent parts of two seasons with the Bisons and to this point had spent 2020 at the Blue Jays training facility in
Jonathan Davis needed just one at bat to put his stamp on the Blue Jays late-season run to the playoffs. And man, did he deliver!
The outfielder who spent parts of two seasons with the Bisons and to this point had spent 2020 at the Blue Jays training facility in Rochester crushed a two-run home run in his first big league plate appearance of the year in Toronto’s 2-1 victory over the Yankees on Tuesday night at Sahlen Field.
The victory is the Blue Jays’ third straight and gives them a three-game cushion on the Yanks for second place in the AL East division. At 24-18, Toronto is six games over the .500-mark for the first time this year.
With the recent injury to slugger Teoscar Hernandez, Davis was promoted from the Blue Jays’ depth squad on Monday and made his first start of the season in the middle game of Toronto’s three-game set against New York. In the bottom of the second inning, Davis got one too many fastballs from another former Bisons, JA Happ, and hammered a 2-2 delivery over the wall in left-centerfield for a two-run shot.
Instant Impact 💣@3_JonathanDavis homers in his FIRST at-bat of 2020! pic.twitter.com/wwbnr6opoJ
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) September 8, 2020
The homer was Davis’ third career big league home run, after having hit a pair with Toronto in 2019.
That’s all the offense the Blue Jays got against Happ, who struck out 10 in 6.1 innings of work. But Taijaun Walker and four Blue Jays relievers combined on a five-hitter to make the advantage stand up.
Walker started and got the big outs when he needed them to overcome five walks in just four innings. He got Michael Tauchman to fly out in the first inning after walking the bases loaded and struck out Luke Voit with two on in the second. Two more Yankees got on base in the fourth, but Walker again held his ground by inducing a ground out from DJ LeMahieu to end the inning.
New York got a run of Shun Yamaguchi on a sacrifice fly in the fifth inning, but the reliever retired six of the final seven batters he faced to keep the 2-1 advantage through six.
めちゃくちゃ凄い 🔥
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) September 9, 2020
Shun was shining 👏 pic.twitter.com/VQWEQHlNJk
A.J. Cole, Anthony Kay and Rafael Dolis all added a perfect 1-2-3 innings to close out the win.
Toronto is now 12-9 in one-run games, the most one-run contests in the Majors this season. The Blue Jays are now 10-5 at Sahlen Field.