Yanks Win 2 of 3 in Pitching Duels

What many thought would be a close but high scoring series, turned into a great pitching series. The starting pitching, for both teams combined, for the series was a 0.75 ERA.

Game 1 Yanks 4 Blue Jays 1

Ted Lilly pitched a solid 6 innings of shutout baseball leaving Toronto with a 1 - 0 lead. Tiring he was pinch hit for to lead off the top of the seventh but no runs were scored. Justin Speier replaced Lilly to begin the bottom of the 7^th and promptly gave away the game, allowing 4 runs on 4 hits and two walks in his 1 inning of relief work. Mel Stottlemyre had his best performance of the year to go to 3-1 with another complete game. Thurman Munson was the only hot hitter for the yanks as he went 3 for 3 with an RBI.

Game 2 Yanks 1 Blue Jays 0

Toronto had Roy Halladay and Miguel Batista on the mound combining to allow the Yanks just 1 run on 6 hits. The Yankees were able to counter though with Fritz Peterson, who pitched a five hit shutout for his second complete game. The lone Yankee run was scored by Danny Cater from third base, after Gene Michael hit into a double play with no outs.

Game 3 Blue Jays 2 Yanks 0

The game did not start well for Stan Bahnsen, who has also had a rough start to the season giving up 17 runs in 20 innings. Walking the first two batters and allowing RBIs by Corey Koskie and Eric Hinski the Yanks were down a quick 2-0 after the first half inning of play. But Peterson settled down for the rest of the game pitching shut out ball. The only problems was that Josh Towers for Toronto pitched shutout ball right from the start. Towers improved to 3-0 on the season with his second complete game.

--submitted by Joe Mach--