Jacoby Ellsbury homered, doubled, and drove in three runs in the Yankees’ 5-3 win over Toronto Friday night but also strained his right hamstring and, with only nine games remaining in the regular season, may be done for the year.
Toronto took a quick 2-0 lead in the top of the first on an Edwin Encarnacion HR off of Yankees’ starter and winner Hiroki Kuroda.
The Yanks came back in the bottom of the first on a double by Ellsbury, single by Jeter and RBI single by McCann.
Ellsbury put the Yanks up 3-2 in the third with his 16th (and final? We’ll hear about the MRI results today) HR of the season.
The Yanks made it 5-2 in the fourth when Ellsbury hit an RBI force out with the bases loaded and reached first on a bad throw by Blue Jays’ SS Jose Reyes which enabled a second run to score on the play. In running down the line, however, Ellsbury strained his hamstring.
Derek Jeter got two hits to run his career total to 3455 and lift his batting average to .252.
Kuroda (W, 11-9, 3.77) went 6 2/3, 3 R, 2 ER, 0 walks and 7 K.
Outman (overall ERA 2.86) one batter, and he gave up a double.
Rogers 2/3 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 1 walk and 0 K. Overall ERA 5.23
Warren (Save #3) 1 2/3, 0 R, 0 H, 0 walks, 3 K. 3.13.
The win puts the Yanks at 79-74, and two games up on Toronto for second place in the AL East. They are 4 1/2 games out of the final wild card spot with just nine games to go. Cleveland is also 79-74, and the Yanks would have not only better the Indians in the last nine games, but also jump over KC (83-69) and Seattle (83-70) to claim that final playoff spot.
HOF 1B Willie McCovey has been hospitalized. Get Well Soon, Stretch!
The Sommer Frieze 
