Yankees capitalize on successful challenge

TORONTO -- Yankees manager Joe Girardi successfully challenged his first play of the season during Friday night's 7-3 win over the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre, as the umpiring crew overturned an out call at first base on what became a two-out infield single by Ichiro Suzuki.

With the Yankees trailing, 3-2, and Brian Roberts on second base in the top of the third inning, Ichiro chopped a pitch from Blue Jays starting pitcher Dustin McGowan up the middle. The ball was fielded by second baseman Ryan Goins, who rifled to first base.

Ichiro was ruled out by first-base umpire and crew chief Dana DeMuth on a close call, which drew Girardi out of the dugout to challenge.

With assistance from the Replay Operations Center at Major League Baseball Advanced Media's headquarters in New York, the umpires overturned the call, returning Ichiro to first base and keeping the Yankees' at-bat alive. The review took one minute and 20 seconds.

"I thought it worked well," Girardi said.

Yangervis Solarte followed with a two-run double off Toronto right-hander Dustin McGowan, giving the Yankees a 4-3 lead they would not relinquish.

"Without instant replay, we're out of that inning," said Blue Jays manager John Gibbons, who turned to his bullpen after McGowan allowed Solarte's double. "Then they get that big double there. That's what it's for. You want to get the game right."

Girardi also challenged a call with the Yankees leading, 5-3, in the eighth inning on Jacoby Ellsbury's line drive up the middle, which struck the glove of Toronto pitcher Steve Delabar.

Delabar didn't catch the ball, but quickly gathered it and threw to first base, forcing a lunging stretch by Edwin Encarnacion. DeMuth ruled that Encarnacion's foot remained on the bag and called Ellsbury out. The call was confirmed after a review of one minute, 24 seconds.

"The second challenge that I had, we knew that it was sketchy that we would win that challenge," Girardi said. "But because it was beyond the sixth inning, it makes no sense to keep it, because we can't carry it over to the next day. So we took a shot on the second one.

"We were positive on the first one, but the second one we were not. Because of the time in the game, that's why we used it."