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 "It was a good day," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "It's good
to leave here with one. It's not what you want, but it sure beats
the alternative."
Mark Teixeira drove in three runs with a homer and a sacrifice fly
and Hiroki Kuroda pitched 6 1/3 innings as the Yankees (40-37)
snapped a four-game losing streak with the victory over the American
League East leaders.
Kuroda (5-5) allowed eight hits, two walks and three runs to win for
the first time since May 28. He was 0-2 in his four starts before
Wednesday.
"I thought he threw the ball pretty good," Girardi said. "He got us
into the seventh inning with a lead. He had a really good sinker
tonight and they used it to get a lot of ground-ball outs."
Teixeira, the Yankees' first baseman, capped a four-run third with a
two-run homer to provide a 4-1 lead over the Blue Jays (44-36), who
had a home run by their first batter of the game, shortstop Jose
Reyes.
"That was a big win," Teixeira said. "We needed this one to stop the
bleeding a little bit. The whole dugout was pretty excited about the
four runs because it had been a while since we'd had a lead."
Blue Jays starter Drew Hutchison (5-6) allowed seven hits, including
one home run, two walks and four runs in six innings. The
right-hander struck out six.
"I felt like I got stronger as the game went on," Hutchison said. "I
was disappointed in that big inning, especially allowing three runs
with two outs and not being able to make that big pitch, and it
turned out to be the difference in the game. Overall it was an OK
game."
The 23-year-old is coming back from Tommy John surgery that kept him
out of the majors last season.
"He's going through some growing pains," Blue Jays manager John
Gibbons said. "He's learning along the way. He's still very
inexperienced; he's a great competitor. Tonight is a perfect
example. One inning got away, but he finished strong, and that's
what we wanted to see. I think he's done a great job for us."
Left-hander Rob Rasmussen took over for the Blue Jays in the
seventh. He walked left fielder Brett Gardner, hit shortstop Derek
Jeter with a pitch and walked center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury to
leave the bases loaded with none out for Sergio Santos. The
right-hander limited the damage to one run on a sacrifice fly by
Teixeira.
Kuroda was replaced by Shawn Kelley in the seventh after second
baseman Munenori Kawasaki led off with a walk and was forced at
second by right fielder Anthony Gose.
Kelley gave up a single to Reyes, his third hit of the night, and
retired left fielder Melky Cabrera on a fly to right, before
left-hander Matt Thornton took over. After a double steal, first
baseman Adam Lind grounded out to the pitcher to end the inning.
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After Blue Jays catcher Dioner Navarro singled with one out in
the eighth against Adam Warren, Yankees closer David Robertson took
over and pitched 1 2/3 innings to earn his 18th save of the
season."He was extremely crisp tonight," Girardi said. "His stuff
was really good."
"We hit a little bit of a rough patch," Robertson said. "We needed
to pick up a win. Beating the Jays is pretty tough and we were
fortunate to sneak one out here."
Reyes led off the Blue Jays' first by taking a first-pitch sinker to
right for his sixth home run of the season. It was his 21st career
homer to open a game -- third this season.
The Yankees scored four runs in the third, two on the 14th homer of
the season by Teixeira. Third baseman Kelly Johnson led off with a
walk and scored on a double by catcher Francisco Cervelli. Ellsbury
hit an RBI double ahead of Teixeira's blast.
The Blue Jays cut the lead to 4-3 in the fifth on a two-out, two-run
single by Cabrera that knocked in Kawasaki, who walked with one out,
and Reyes, who hit a ground-rule double with two outs.
NOTES: The Blue Jays promoted OF Brad Glenn from Triple-A Buffalo
and returned OF Kevin Pillar to Buffalo on option. Glenn was batting
.381 with four homers and 22 RBIs over 30 games in Triple-A. INF
Jonathan Diaz was designated for assignment to make room for Glenn
on the 40-man roster. ... Yankees OF Carlos Beltran, who has not
played in the field since suffering an elbow injury that put him on
the disabled list May 15, will continue serving only as the
designated hitter for the time being after his forearm tightened
Sunday while throwing. ... The Blue Jays will start LHP J.A. Happ
(6-4, 4.87 ERA) against RHP Scott Carroll (2-3, 4.30 ERA) on
Thursday in the opener of a four-game series against the Chicago
White Sox at Rogers Centre. ... The Yankees have Thursday off before
starting LHP Vidal Nuno (1-4, 5.88 ERA) on Friday in the opener of a
three-game series in New York against the Boston Red Sox, who have
not announced a starter.
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