If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that the 1st live game I saw, at the old Yankee stadium in 1978, was against the Toronto Blue Jays, and that they beat the Yankees, and that the Jays seemed to beat the Yankees every time I saw them play until the late 1990s Dynasty began,, and that's why I call them "those pesky Blue Jays."
So, while I don't hate them as much as I hate the Boston Red Sox, or perhaps some other teams, I do have a burr under my saddle when it comes to them.
So it's always good to see them lose. And it is certainly good to see the Yankees sweep them, regardless of whether it's in The Bronx, or Toronto or, as was the case this time, Buffalo.
Buffalo's ballpark, a replacement for the old War Memorial Stadium, opened in 1988, hoping to soon be the home of an expansion team. Since the Buffalo Bisons are Class AAA (or "Triple-A"), a capacity of 19,500 was deemed sufficient for that, but the mezzanine was set up so that it could be expanded into a true upper deck, increasing capacity to a major-league ready 41,530.
In 1991, Major League Baseball decided that the 2 new expansion teams for 1993 would be Denver (the Colorado Rockies) and Miami (the Florida Marlins, renamed the Miami Marlins in 2012). Buffalo got bypassed again in 1995, when Phoenix (the Arizona Diamondbacks) and Tampa (the Tampa Bay Rays) were selected for 1998.
Still, the Bisons kept going, winning International League Pennants in 1997, 1998 and 2004, and vying with Louisville, Kentucky for the attendance leadership in minor-league baseball. The naming rights changed a few times: Pilot Field, for Pilot Air Freight, until 1995; then North AmeriCare Park, for a health care company, until 1999; then Dunn Tire Park, for a tire salon outfit, until 2008; then Coca-Cola Field until 2018; and, since then, Sahlen Field, for a local meat packing company.
Current capacity is listed at 16,600. When COVID restrictions forced the Blue Jays to play there, in the closest big city to Toronto, they paid for some improvements, including to the lighting and the scoreboards, to bring Sahlen Field up to major league sufficiency.
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Last night, the Yankees faced the hole in the starting rotation caused by the injury to Corey Kluber, and started Michael King. He didn't get out of the 5 inning, allowing 2 runs. He was also responsible for a runner in the 5th that Lucas Luetge allowed to score. And Chad Green allowed another run in the 6th. It wasn't looking good for the Bronx Bombers.
They managed to get a run on a fielder's choice in the 2nd inning, and Gio Urshela hit a home run in the 3rd. But it was still 4-3 Jays going to the top of the 7th. It could have been even worse had it not been for some bad hitting by Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and some worse baserunning by Marcus Semien and Bo Bichette, in the 1st inning that led to the Yankees' 2nd triple play of the season.
But Rougned Odor led off the 7th inning with a single, and Giancarlo Stanton hit a home run to give the Yankees the lead. One thing led to another, and rookie Chris Gittens singled home 2 more runs. Gittens drove in another run with a sacrifice fly in the 9th.
Green settled down after allowing his run, Jonathan Loaisiga threw some nasty stuff to close the 7th and the 8th, and Zack Britton pitched a hitless 9th to end it. Yankees 8, Blue Jays 4. WP: Green (1-4). No save. LP: Anthony Castro (1-2).
The completion of the sweep, and the completion of the roadtrip, means the Yankees are now 36-32. They are 6 games, 5 in the loss column, behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League Eastern Division, as they come home to start a homestand, against the AL Western Division-leading Oakland Athletics.
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