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Brian McCann blasts a 2-run homer in the bottom of the 4th off Mark Burhle.
Brian McCann blasts a 2-run homer in the bottom of the 4th off Mark Burhle.

GAME 70: Tonight we saw the Brian McCann Yankees fans dreamed about over the winter. While his work with the pitching staff has drawn wide praise, he’d tell you himself that the offensive numbers are nowhere close to where he should be. That may be changing.
After Toronto took a 2-1 lead in the top of the 4th, Carlos Beltran singled and McCann clubbed a two-run homer off Blue Jay’s ace Mark Buehrle in the bottom the inning. With the game still 3-2 in the bottom of the seventh, McCann busted it open with a bases-loaded triple. 

“Tonight was a good night. It was about time I chipped in. … It was just nice to contribute on the offensive side for a change.”
— Yankees catcher Brian McCann

Alfonso Soriano opened the scoring for the Yanks with a first inning single to right-center, scoring Brett Gardner. Gardner was on fire, going 4-5 and raising his BA to .290.

Whitley Improves to 3-0

The story of Chase Whitley just keeps getting better. The rookie left-hander contained the powerful Toronto lineup long enough to earn his third victory against no defeats. He scattered 5 hits over 5 innings, striking out 2 in a 95-pitch effort. Adam Warren, Jose Ramirez, Dellin Betances, and David Robertson combined to close it out.
Here’s the box score and recap.
MEMORY LANE: On June 18th, 1987, Don Mattingly tied Dale Long‘s 31-year-old Major League record when he hit a home run for the eighth consecutive game in the Yankees’ 7-2 loss to the Texas Rangers … On this date in 1964, the Yankees defeated the Boston Red Sox, 6-3 behind a complete game win by Rollie Sheldon. The batting heroes that day included Tom Tresh (1-4, HR), shortstop Tony Kubek (3-4), Roger Maris (2-4), Joe Pepitone (2-3), Bobby Richardson (3-5), and catcher Elston Howard (1-4 with 2 RBI). Tresh’s two-run dinger in the bottom of the 7th gave Sheldon a little margin for error, increasing the Yankees’ lead from 4-3 to the final 6-3 result. Yogi Berra managed the club that year, and the campaign ended in a World Series loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games. The Yankees would not reach the Fall Classic again for 12 years, getting swept by the Big Red Machine (Cincinnati Reds) in 1976. But we all know what happened in ’77 and ’78 …

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