Cano, Yankees Leave Their Mark On Buehrle Again

The Yankees wiped the smile off of Mark Buerhle's face again.

Mark Buehrle has had a successful 14 year career in the big leagues. 175 wins, a perfect game, a no-hitter, and a World Series ring are among the items on his resume. He's not a fantasy baseball player since he will only give you a boost in wins, but more importantly, he can't handle the New York Yankees at all. In fact, you couldn't blame him if he never wanted to face them again.

That won't be possible since Buehrle is now smack dab in the AL East after 12 seasons with the Chicago White Sox and one playing for Miami Marlins con man.  Now a member of the Toronto Blue Jays, Buehrle was a handed a 3-0 lead after Edwin Encarnacion and Brett Lawrie homered in the first two innings Thursday night.

But just as they did last week in Toronto, the Yankees topped Buerhle and the Blue Jays 5-3. Vernon Wells replicated his feat from the prior meeting by hitting a second inning home run. One inning later, Robinson Cano hit his third career home run off of Buerhle with two men aboard for a 4-3 Yankees lead.

Buehrle had allowed three home runs through his first four starts, but the Yankees matched the total when Francisco Cervelli went deep in the 4th inning. The two run lead was plenty for Hiroki Kuroda, who pitched beautifully from the third inning on. Joba Chamberlain, David Robertson, and Mariano Rivera blanked the Jays over the final three fames with just one Toronto runner reaching base safely. Kuroda improved to 3-1 with the win.

Buehrle career record against the Yankees dropped to 1-9 in 14 career starts with a 6.19 ERA. The Yankees have a .324 average against the veteran left-hander, whose WHIP is 1.61 vs. New York compared to his career mark of 1.28 against all of baseball.

Cano has a ridiculous 1.405 OPS against Buehrle with the three aforementioned home runs and a pair of doubles in 20 at-bats (eight hits total).  Wells isn't far behind with a 1.289 OPS, that includes three home runs, four doubles, and a triple as part of a .480 average. He's also driven in 10 runs in 50 at-bats.

Notes

Wednesday night was Eduardo Nunez's time to shine in the field against Tampa Bay. Last night it was Jayson Nix wielding a hot glove at the hot corner in place of Kevin Youkilis. Joe Girardi is hoping Youkilis' back will be in good enough shape to play this weekend.

Ichiro Suzuki had a couple of hits and is 9-29 (.310) over his last five games.

Ben Francisco had one hit in the game, but is just 3-29 on the season. Even though he's a right-handed bat, he has to be the primary candidate to be let go when Curtis Granderson returns.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Cano has 7 HR and 17 RBI in his last 15 games. Only Mike Napoli (19) has knocked in more runs in that span.