A nasty splitter helped Nathan Eovaldi navigate and at times dominate one of baseball’s best lineups through four innings Thursday night.
But the pitch flattened out on him at a couple of inopportune times in the innings that followed, leading to the Yankees’ 4-2 loss to the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.
A three-run homer by reigning AL MVP Josh Donaldson with two outs in the fifth turned a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 Toronto lead and Troy Tulowitzki’s solo blast in the sixth made it 4-2.
That was enough for Toronto ace Marcus Stroman, who turned in his best outing of the young season.
Stroman (2-0), other than a ragged 34-pitch fourth inning that saw the Yankees push two runs across, was terrific. The 24-year-old right-hander, who had 5.40 ERA after his first two starts but brought a 4-1, 2.43 career ledger in against the Yankees, allowed just those two runs and three hits over eight innings. Stroman, who retired the final 11 batters he faced, struck out three and walked two. The Yankees only reached base in two of Stroman’s eight innings.
The Yankees (4-4) had three hits overall, two of them in the fourth and none after that inning. Roberto Osuna blew away the Yankees in a perfect ninth for his fourth save.
Eovaldi (0-1) was better than in his first start of the year, April 7 against the Astros, when he got the no-decision in an 8-5 victory, a game in which he allowed five runs and six hits over five innings.
Thursday night he allowed four runs, seven hits and two walks over 6 2/3 innings with eight strikeouts.
He took a 2-0 lead into the fifth where things changed quickly. After retiring Chris Colabello to start the inning, former Yankees catcher Russell Martin worked a six-pitch walk. Eovaldi got Ryan Goins to fly to center for the second out, but leadoff man Kevin Pillar yanked a double off the third-base bag, putting runners at second and third for Donaldson.
The third baseman then rifled a 1-and-0 splitter into the second level in dead center, an area visited by few baseballs in this building, for his fifth homer to give the Blue Jays (5-5) a 3-2 lead. Tulowitzki jumped on a first-pitch splitter an inning later for his second homer.
Both starters matched zeros over the first three innings before the Yankees broke through in the fourth, the 34-pitch inning ballooning Stroman’s total to 69.
Stroman hit Alex Rodriguez with a pitch with one out and Mark Teixeira followed with a single to right. Brian McCann, who struck out in the second, slapped a grounder to second where Goins, ranging to his right, made a sliding stop but had no play as the ball skittered away. The infield single loaded the bases for Carlos Beltran. The right fielder got ahead 2-and-1 before bouncing one to second, too slow for Goins to turn a double play as Beltran hustled down the line. Rodriguez came in on the 4-6 force play to make it 1-0. Chase Headley worked a walk to load the bases and a wild pitch brought in Teixeira to make it 2-0.
The Blue Jays looked as if they’d get on the board in the bottom half but Eovaldi pitched out of trouble. He walked Jose Bautista with one out and Edwin Encarnacion ripped a double down the leftfield line. Tulowitzki, however, swung at the first pitch he saw and popped to short and Eovaldi struck out Michael Saunders with a splitter for the third out.