Chad Green not only came up with the best start of his young career Monday night, the righthander arguably turned in the best outing of any Yankees starter this season.
Dominating the AL East-leading Blue Jays from the beginning, Green took a perfect game into the fifth inning, settling for six shutout innings in a 1-0 victory in front of 36,015 at the Stadium.
The Yankees (61-57) again matched their high-water mark at four games over .500 and remained 4 1⁄2 games behind Boston for the second AL wild-card spot.
The Yankees had been 0-20 this season when scoring one run.
The 25-year-old Green, brilliant as a starter in the minors but 1-2 with a 7.50 ERA in four big-league starts, allowed two hits over six innings.
Armed with a nasty slider he’s been refining in the minors, Green, taking the place of the injured Nathan Eovaldi, struck out a career-high 11 and walked none. He struck out the last five batters he faced.
Rookie call-up Aaron Judge had two hits, including an RBI double in the fourth that accounted for the Yankees’ lone run.
Though lacking a clever nickname that could end up on a T-shirt, the triumvirate at the back end of the Yankees’ bullpen again proved effective.
Tyler Clippard pitched a perfect seventh and Adam Warren a perfect eighth.
Dellin Betances struggled with his command in the ninth, walking Josh Thole after getting ahead 0-and-2. After Devon Travis fouled out to first, Josh Donaldson singled on a 3-and-1 pitch to put runners at the corners. Swinging first pitch, Edwin Encarnacion hit a ground smash at Chase Headley, who started a 5-4-3 double play to end it, earning Betances his fifth save.
Knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, getting the start for the Blue Jays (67-52), allowed one run and four hits over five innings. He walked four, struck out six and stranded seven.
Overall, it was a night of frustration at the plate for the Yankees, who were 2-for-18 with runners in scoring position and stranded 14.
Green was perfect through 4 1⁄3 innings before Troy Tulo witzki singled hard to left. Darrell Ceciliani followed with a double, putting runners at second and third. Green, however, struck out Justin Smoak swinging at a slider and Melvin Upton Jr. looking at a fastball, the start of his string of five straight Ks.
Dickey escaped a jam in a 25-pitch first.
He came in struggling, having allowed four earned runs or more in four of his last five starts, and it took the Yankees one pitch to get after him. Jacoby Ellsbury started it with a double into the gap in right-center and Headley worked a walk. Didi Gregorius struck out on a knuckleball in the dirt, Mark Teixeira lined softly to second and Starlin Castro struck out to end the inning.
After Green struck out the side in the top of the second, the Yankees stranded two again in the bottom half. Brian McCann worked a leadoff walk and Gary Sanchez (two hits) pounded an 0-and-2 knuckleball up the middle for a single. Judge, with homers in each of his first two games in the big leagues, struck out and Aaron Hicks flied to left. Ellsbury bounced back to Dickey to end the inning.
Dickey, after 47 pitches through two, needed seven to get through the third but was in trouble again in the fourth.
He walked McCann and Sanchez with one out, bringing up Judge. The 6-7, 230-pound rightfielder, swinging first pitch, took a flat knuckleball into the gap in right-center for an RBI double that made it 1-0.
Green and the Yankees’ bullpen made the run stand up the rest of the way.
..... - Newsday