Bautista hits 2 homers as Blue Jays beat Yanks 6-1

[June 05, 2010]  TORONTO (AP) -- Jose Bautista hit two towering home runs, Edwin Encarnacion also connected and the slugging Toronto Blue Jays beat the New York Yankees 6-1 on Friday night.

Brett Cecil (6-2) pitched eight innings for Toronto, matching a career high. The left-hander allowed one run and five hits while improving to 4-0 with a 1.52 ERA in his past four starts.

Bautista led off the second with a drive off A.J. Burnett that went off the facing of the third deck in left, his career high 17th. He went deep again in the fourth, finding the same area again for a two-run shot.

Encarnacion led off the fifth with his eighth homer, a drive to left-center that gave Toronto a 4-0 lead.

Burnett (6-3) allowed six runs and six hits in six innings, walked four and struck out two against his old team. The right-hander had allowed just four homers in his first 11 starts this season and never more than one in a game.

Burnett has struggled in two starts in Toronto since opting out of his contract with the Blue Jays and signing with the Yankees after the 2008 season. He allowed five runs over 7 2-3 innings in a 5-1 loss to Roy Halladay on May 12, 2009.

Bautista leads the majors with 18 homers, and the Blue Jays have a major league-high 94 longballs.

Toronto added two more runs in the sixth. Bautista drew a leadoff walk and went to second on Alex Gonzalez's single before both runners moved up on a grounder. Bautista scored on a wild pitch and Gonzalez came home on John Buck's sacrifice fly.

Bautista, who also had a leadoff double in the eighth, went 3 for 3 with three RBIs.

New York scored its only run in the sixth. Chad Moeller hit a leadoff double, went to third on Derek Jeter's single and came home when Nick Swisher grounded into a double play.

Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano, who came in leading the majors with a .373 average, went 0 for 4, ending his hitting streak at 17 games. He flied out to left for the final out of the game.

NOTES: Yankees pitching coach Dave Eiland is taking a leave of absence and will be away for the team for an unspecified time, manager Joe Girardi said. ... Blue Jays CF Vernon Wells reached on an infield single in the fourth, extending his hitting streak to a season-high 12 games. ... Attendance was 30,089, Toronto's biggest since opening day.

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.