Yankees 11 Blue Jays 5
TORONTO — Mark Teixeira and Jorge Posada each homered and had four hits as the New York Yankees used five home runs to defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 11-5 Tuesday.
Right-hander Dustin Moseley (4-2) held the Blue Jays to five hits and two runs over six innings before a crowd of 30,567 at Rogers Centre.
Curtis Granderson hit his 14th with two on, Marcus Thames his fifth with one on and Derek Jeter hit his 10th to go with Teixeira’s 28th homer and Posada’s 16th of the season.
The teams play the rubber match of the three-game series Wednesday. The Blue Jays (65-60) still leading the season series 6-5 with the Yankees (78-48), who entered the game tied with the Tampa Bay Rays for first in the American League East.
Despite some minor tinkering with his pitching mechanics, it was another short outing for Marc Rzepczynski (1-2). The left-hander was pummelled for six runs and eight hits, including three home runs, in three innings.
Brian Tallet took over in the fourth from Rzepczynski ,who lasted 4 1-3 innings in a no-decision in Oakland on Aug. 18. That followed an encouraging seven-inning two-hitter on Aug. 13 in a 3-0 win over the Los Angeles Angels after he was recalled from triple-A Las Vegas.
The Yankees scored once in each of the first two innings. Teixeira chopped a single up the middle in the first to score Nick Swisher, who had doubled.
In the second, Thames led off with a single. He took third when right-fielder Jose Bautista misjudged Posada’s fly that went for a single.
Thames was thrown out at home after Rzepczynski fielded a grounder by Austin Kearns. Thames knocked the ball out of catcher John Buck’s grasp but missed the plate and Buck recovered to tag him out.
After a walk to Granderson, Eduardo Nunez grounded to second. He avoided the double play when he beat the throw to first from shortstop Yunel Escobar who had no chance after a slow, soft feed from second baseman Aaron Hill.
Not such subtleties helped the Yankees in the third as Teixeira, Thames and Posada homered for four runs. Robinson Cano walked before the homer by Thames.
The Blue Jays didn’t have a runner on base until Edwin Encarnacion singled with two out in the bottom of the third.
The Blue Jays scored once in the fourth but it should have been more. Vernon Wells drove in the run with a single to right, his first run batted in since Aug. 8. But with runners at the corners with none out, last season’s stars, Adam Lind and Hill, killed another rally.
Lind’s fly to centre was too shallow to score Bautista from third and Hill popped out to second to extend his drought to 0-for-18. Lyle Overbay’s grounder ended the inning.
The Yankees scored four more in the fifth on two home runs against Tallet, a three-run shot from Granderson hit and a solo from Derek Jeter. It was such a bad inning for Tallet that after he caught Swisher’s pop-up for the third out, he was knocked down by his own first baseman, Overbay, who also was focused on the ball.
Buck singled in a run in the sixth with Lind out at home also trying to score on the hit. The Blue Jays scored three against Chad Gaudin in the seventh, one on a single by Wells and two on a double by Lind.
Notes: Brett Gardner pinch-hit for Swisher with a 2-2 count in the seventh. Swisher had fouled a pitch off his right leg and was in pain, tried to continue the at-bat but after one more pitch manager Joe Girardi came out and escorted him from the field....With 12 strikeouts in six innings in Monday’s no-decision against the Yankees, Brandon Morrow has a club-leading 165 strikeouts this season, tied for fourth in the American League. He leads the majors with a ratio of 10.81 strikeouts per nine innings.... Phil Hughes (15-5, 3.90 earned-run average) faces Brett Cecil (10-6, 3.90 ERA) in the series finale....Blue Jays pitching prospect Kyle Drabek improved his record with Double- A New Hampshire to 14-9 by pitching seven runless innings on Monday in a 6-0 win over Trenton.