Kirby Reyelts blog

Jose Bautista and Ricky Romero were unanimous winners of the annual awards handed out by the Toronto chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association on Thursday afternoon.

Bautista received the Neil MacCarl Award as Player of the Year while Romero earned Pitcher of the Year in his first season as Toronto’s No. 1 starter.

Rookie of the Year went to catcher J.P. Arencibia, Most Improved Player went to right-hander Casey Janssen and the John Cerutti Award was given to right-hander Dustin McGowan.

It’s the second consecutive year that Bautista received the top honor. The 31-year-old led the Major Leagues with 43 home runs, 132 walks, .608 slugging and a 1.056 OPS in 2011.

Bautista became the first player to lead the league in those four categories since Barry Bonds in 2001 and the first American League player to accomplish the feat since Ted Williams in 1942.

The Dominican native previously won several awards this offseason including the Hank Aaron Award as the AL’s top hitter and a Silver Slugger Award for his offensive prowess as the league’s top right fielder. Despite the impressive overall numbers, Bautista finished third in voting for the AL MVP that was announced in November.

Romero earned the top pitching honor for the second time in as many years. He lead the team in starts (32), wins (15) and ERA (2.92) while also earning his first All-Star nomination in July.

Arencibia was the top rookie after an impressive campaign as Toronto’s No. 1 catcher. The 25-year-old set a franchise record for home runs by a catcher with 23, which is tied for third in the history of Major League Baseball for rookie catchers — he trailed only Mike Piazza (35) and Matt Nokes (28).

Janssen edged out shortstop Yunel Escobar in voting for the Most Improved Player. Janssen posted a 6-0 record with a 2.26 ERA in 55 2/3 innings as Toronto’s primary setup man for closer Frank Francisco. Those numbers compared favorably to his 2010 season, which saw him go 5-2 with a 3.67 ERA.

McGowan earned the distinguished John Cerutti Award, which is given to a person that exemplifies the goodwill, cooperation and character displayed by the late Toronto left-hander. McGowan made his return to the big leagues this past season for the first time since 2008 after a series of major surgeries on his right shoulder.

A.J. Burnett hadn’t won a game in weeks. He hadn’t felt good about a start in months. And he had never experienced victory as a member of the New York Yankees when the calendar flipped to August.

The Kansas City Royals were the perfect opponent to change all that.

Burnett managed to scatter 10 singles over a shaky 5 2-3 innings Monday night, and Derek Jeter drove in three runs to help the Yankees beat Kansas City 7-4 and finally give the right-hander something to feel good about.

“It makes you feel a part of it,” Burnett said after his first victory since June 29, a stretch of seven mostly miserable starts. “There are a lot of things to keep you not too content, but yeah, it feels good.”

Burnett (9-9) had been winless in 13 starts in August since signing a five-year, $82.5 million deal with New York, going 0-8 with a 7.18 ERA. His late season struggles, combined with his poor recent performances, are a big reason that manager Joe Girardi has considered dropping him from the starting rotation.

But the right-hander had allowed only four runs over 26 1-3 innings against the Royals since joining the Yankees, so it figured that Burnett would have a good chance to get back on the right side of the ledger.

“It probably feels really good,” Girardi said. “He’s thrown some games I thought we could have got him wins and we didn’t, and that’s frustrating because I think you always ask yourself as a player, ‘Could I have done a little more and maybe kept them off the scoreboard?’”

Brett Gardner added a pair of RBIs, and Mark Teixeira and pinch hitter Andruw Jones also drove in runs for the Yankees (73-46), who moved back into a tie with idle Boston for the AL East lead.

Mariano Rivera wrapped up the victory, pitching a perfect ninth for his 31st save.

Melky Cabrera and Billy Butler each drove in a pair of runs for the Royals, who lost for the eighth time in nine games. Felipe Paulino (1-5) didn’t provide much help from the mound, allowing five runs on five walks and eight hits in just 5 1-3 innings, the erratic performance running his winless streak to six consecutive games.

“Their hitters over there make a lot of money,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “The reason they make a lot of money is they don’t miss mistakes. Paulino, every ball he got hurt on was pitches up.”

Things began ominously for Paulino, who was pulled early from his last start against Tampa Bay when his back stiffened up. He plunked Gardner leading off the game and walked Teixeira before he escaped the inning.

Paulino wasn’t as fortunate in the second, when Gardner and Jeter delivered two-out RBI singles.

The Royals squandered two decent scoring chances early, stringing together three singles in the second without a run, then putting runners on first and second with one out before a double play ended the fourth.

Kansas City finally broke through in the fifth.

Mike Moustakas snapped a 0-for-13 skid with a one-out single, and Alcides Escobar and Alex Gordon followed with consecutive singles to load the bases. Cabrera walked on a full count to bring in the first run, and Butler lined a two-run single down the right-field line to give Kansas City the lead.

Robinson Cano ended the inning when the All-Star second baseman ranged to his left to gobble up Eric Hosmer’s ground ball, spun toward second base and threw to Jeter to begin a 5-4-3 double play.

New York promptly answered the Royals’ three-run inning with three of their own.

Jorge Posada, back in the lineup after a six-RBI game Saturday at Tampa Bay, singled with one out to start the sixth. Russell Martin’s single put runners on the corners, and Gardner’s RBI single tied the game.

“It seems like every time we got something going,” Moustakas said, “they answered right back.”

Jeter came to the plate to a round of applause from a crowd split between Royals and Yankees fans, and he roped a two-run triple into the gap in right. Jeter slid headfirst into third base in dramatic fashion, even though strong-armed right fielder Jeff Francoeur didn’t have much chance of throwing him out.

The Yankees added an insurance run on Jones’ RBI single in the seventh. Kansas City matched it in the bottom half on Cabrera’s RBI double, but Teixeira restored the three-run cushion with an RBI in the eighth.

“They put up some runs. We put up a run. They put some more runs up. It’s just a good battle,” Moustakas said. “I felt we were in that ball game the entire way. Again, things didn’t fall our way.”

The Cleveland Indians hit two home runs off Josh Beckett. They got a neat start from David Huff. They hung tough with the team that owns the AL’s best record.

Aside from the final score, Indians manager Manny Acta really didn’t have much to complain about in Tuesday night’s 3-2 loss to the Boston Red Sox.

“I liked the way we battled today against this ballclub, and especially against the pitcher we went against,” Acta said.

“A lot of credit goes to David Huff, who pitched a tremendous ballgame, despite warming up twice because of the rain situation,” he said. “He really made some good pitches when we didn’t play good defense behind him and made him throw a ton of extra pitches. He really buckled up and made some great pitches. I can’t say enough about him – he gave us a tremendous outing.”

Pinch-runner Jarrod Saltalamacchia dived across home plate to score the winning run on Jacoby Ellsbury’s single in the ninth inning.

Jason Varitek singled with one out in the ninth against Vinnie Pestano (1-1) and Saltalamacchia ran for him. Josh Reddick followed with a single that sent Saltalamacchia to second.

Ellsbury then singled, setting up the play at the plate. Center fielder Eziquiel Cabrera made a wide throw home and Carlos Santana caught the ball, but Saltalamacchia won the race to the plate.

The start of the game was delayed by rain for one hour, 35 minutes.

Huff, making his third start since being recalled from Triple-A Columbus, lowered his ERA to 0.51 with five innings. The only run that scored against him came after an error by second baseman Jason Kipnis.

The run actually scored on a wild pitch by Huff on strike three to Jason Varitek, the first of three straight Ks by Huff to get him out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam with only one run scoring.

Huff left with a 2-1 lead. The left-hander’s chance for a win quickly disappeared when reliever Rafael Perez gave up a homer to Kevin Youkilis, the first batter he faced in the sixth.

“At the end, they came back and beat our bullpen, which has been our strength so we have to give them credit,” Acta said. “They pieced three hits together at the end there, one on a broken bat, there’s not much you can do. I just like the way we’re fighting right now.”

Jonathan Papelbon (3-0) got the win after shutting down the Indians on just 10 pitches in the ninth. Boston posted its six walk-off win of the season.

Jason Kipnis and Lonnie Chisenhall hit solo homers for Cleveland’s runs. Chisenhall homered into the right-field corner in the fourth.

Youkilis tied it at 2 with a towering solo shot that hit one of the signs above the Green Monster.

Youkilis was ejected after his next at-bat, when he struck out on a checked swing and argued on his way back to the dugout.

Kipnis, who homered in his last at-bat Monday, drove the first pitch he saw from Beckett into the Boston bullpen in the first to put the Indians up 1-0.

Beckett was pulled after six innings, allowing six hits and striking out seven.