Arrighetti shows promise in Blue Jays debut but bats falter in loss to Yankees

NEW YORK — About 30 minutes prior to Friday’s first pitch, Spencer Arrighetti walked slowly out to left field at Yankee Stadium, just as a starter would. Once there, he went through his typical pre-start warm-up routine. Stretching, long toss, mentally locking in.

But as the bottom of the first inning began, he wasn’t on the game mound. He was on the one in the bullpen, throwing warm-up pitches while Mason Fluharty, an opener, threw ones that count.

That’s how the Toronto Blue Jays opted to begin another bullpen game — a common, oft-successful strategy for the club over the last several seasons — starting its best left-handed reliever against a New York Yankees team that regularly stacks left-handed hitters atop its lineup.

But Yankees manager Aaron Boone had a counterpunch waiting, writing out a batting order he hadn’t used all season that began with a string of right-handed hitters — Paul Goldschmidt, Amed Rosario, and Heliot Ramos. George Lombard Jr — another righty — lurked in the five-hole behind Ben Rice, putting Fluharty in an awfully disadvantageous position.

Goldschmidt flew out ambushing Fluharty’s first pitch of the game, but Rosario walked on four pitches and was immediately replaced with the left-handed hitting Jazz Chisholm Jr. at first base. Fluharty got a groundball hit too softly for a double play out of Ramos, but promptly walked the lone lefty in the string — Rice — on five pitches before being lifted.

Point Boone. Toronto’s opener faced 75 per cent of his hitters with a platoon disadvantage and walked a pair while its bulk arm was forced to begin his night with two runners on. The cost for the Yankees was burning a bench spot; but the Blue Jays burned a leverage left-hander in turn.

Credit Arrighetti for entering that uncomfortable situation pumping the zone, going right after Lombard and striking him out on four pitches. But New York’s tactics paid off in the second, as Arrighetti began the inning facing a pair of left-handed hitters — Trent Grisham, who walked, and Spencer Jones, who lifted an elevated cutter 395 feet skyward along the right-field line.

First base umpire Dan Iassogna took a good, long look at it travelling over the foul pole and judged the ball as a homer. And upon crew chief review, there presumably wasn’t enough evidence to overturn the call, which was upheld. Arrighetti retired the next three batters he faced — all righties — but the damage was done. Boone’s gambit paid off with two early runs.

On a night when he had Cy Young frontrunner Cam Schlittler starting, that was liable to be enough. Yet Schlittler was decidedly less than his best self, lacking control and command while earning little whiff and chase. The Blue Jays encountered a rare opportunity against one of the game’s best arms on an off night. But a bottom-five offence sputtered and sparked, letting Boone’s early-game maneuvering prove the difference in a 3-1 defeat.

Arrighetti, meanwhile, allowed three runs on three hits and two walks while striking out four in his Blue Jays debut, facing 15 hitters over 3.1 innings.