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TORONTO(AP) After a brush with perfection in his previous start,
Andy Pettitte
had to battle in this one. He still came out a winner.
Mark Teixeira
and
Robinson Cano
homered, Pettitte won his fourth straight start and the
New York Yankees
beat the
Toronto Blue Jays
6-4 on Saturday.
The AL East leaders, who had a seven-game winning streak snapped Friday, have won 15 of 19 on the road.
''It was a real important game for us to win because you don't want losing streaks to become two,'' manager
Joe Girardi
said. ''You want to stop it after one and get on another roll. We have a chance to win the series tomorrow and that's what
you want to do.''
Pettitte is 5-2 following a Yankees loss this season and 81-42 in such situations during his New York career.
Toronto dropped to 4-11 against the Yankees this year and has lost 18 of 24 overall.
Pettitte (13-6), who took a perfect game into the seventh inning in his previous outing against Baltimore, extended his unbeaten
streak to eight starts despite not making it past the sixth inning in this one. The lefty allowed four runs and four hits,
walked five and struck out three.
''I actually felt pretty good to start the game off but just got out of rhythm and really just struggled,'' Pettitte said.
''It was a struggle all day. I wasn't locating my fastball to either side of the plate and I was having trouble getting my
breaking ball over.''
Girardi praised Pettitte for ''keeping the damage to a minimum.''
''The walks hurt him today,'' Girardi said. ''He hasn't walked a lot of people lately and today they kind of bit him.''
David Robertson
worked the seventh,
Brian Bruney
got two outs in the eighth and
Phil Hughes
closed it out for his third save.
All-Star closer
Mariano Rivera
threw a bullpen session before the game and reported no pain in his sore left groin, meaning he might be able to return to
the mound Sunday.
''It's not very often you get to save games on the Yankees if your name's not Mariano,'' Hughes said. ''It's been nice. I
think we have the depth and the arms in the bullpen to pick up the slack if he needs a break.''
Derek Jeter
returned to the lineup after a day off and got two hits, leaving him seven shy of breaking the Yankees record held by
Lou Gehrig
(2,721).
Cano hit a leadoff homer to right in the fourth, his 23rd, and Teixeira led off the fifth with a shot to left, his team-leading
33rd.
Both homers came off rookie left-hander
Brett Cecil
(6-4), who allowed three runs and seven hits in 4 2-3 innings while losing for the third time in four starts.
Pettitte retired his first 20 batters Monday night at Baltimore before an error by third baseman Jerry Hairston Jr. ended
his bid for perfection. Pettitte gave up a single to his next batter,
Nick Markakis
.
This time, Pettitte walked leadoff hitter
Marco Scutaro
to begin the first inning.
Leading 1-0 on
Melky Cabrera
's RBI single in the second, Pettitte appeared to give up his first hit in the bottom half when rookie
Randy Ruiz
hooked a 1-0 pitch down the line in left.
Third base umpire
Jeff Nelson
ruled it a home run but, after Ruiz circled the bases, the umpires huddled near third base before three jogged off the field
and under the first-base stands to watch a replay, the first video review at Rogers Centre.
After about 5 minutes, they emerged and waved Ruiz back into the batter's box. Television replays indicated that the ball
was indeed foul.
''I had the best look at it,'' said Hairston, who was playing left. ''It was a tough call. It was really, really close. I
saw it hit a fan in foul territory. That's why I was kind of adamant.''
Ruiz ended up grounding out but homered to left-center in his next at-bat.
Pettitte walked the next two batters before
John McDonald
dropped a single into short right that rolled past a charging
Eric Hinske
, scoring
Edwin Encarnacion
. Cano retrieved the ball and fired it to the plate in time to nail
Jose Bautista
, who was trying to score from first. Bautista appeared to slide home ahead of the tag from catcher
Jorge Posada
but was called out by plate umpire Tim Tschida.
''It was a lot closer than I thought it was going to be,'' Pettitte said. ''I thought he was going to be out by a mile.''
Leading 3-2 on Teixeira's homer, New York added two more in the sixth off reliever
Casey Janssen
on RBI singles by
Alex Rodriguez
and Posada.
NOTES: Posada and Rodriguez are expected to get the day off Sunday. ... Encarnacion was activated from the 15-day disabled
list before the game. ... McDonald made his first career start in left field.
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