Hideki Matsui hit a tying, two-run
homer in the eighth inning off Scott Downs, Francisco Cervelli hit the
winning single in the ninth and New York beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4
Wednesday night.
A day after brawling in the Bronx,
the Blue Jays and Yankees made it through nine innings calmly on the
first chilly night of late summer.
New York was held to four hits
through seven innings, then tied it on Matsui's 25th homer, a drive
over the manual scoreboard on the right-field wall.
Brett Gardner singled off Jason
Frasor (6-3) leading off the ninth, stole second, took third on Derek
Jeter's grounder and scored on Cervelli's sharp single to left.
Mariano Rivera (3-2) pitched a one-hit ninth for the win.
Approaching a return to the playoffs
after a one-year absence, New York (94-53) finished its next-to-last
homestand of the regular season by overcoming three wild pitches and an
error by the shortstop Jeter, who allowed a grounder to go through his
legs.
Toronto lost two pitchers to injury.
Brian Tallet cut short his start after bruising his right foot on
Robinson Cano's comebacker leading off the second. He finished the
inning and was replaced by Shawn Camp starting the third. Camp hit
Melky Cabrera above the right knee with an 80 mph breaking ball in the
fourth, but both benches remained calm.
Downs also left early. Three batters
after Matsui's homer, he came out with a 1-0 count to Cabrera, who hit
an inning-ending flyout against Frasor.
Much of the focus was on events of a night earlier.
Jorge Posada and Shelley Duncan of
the Yankees and Jesse Carlson of the Blue Jays each were suspended for
three games by Major League Baseball for their role in Tuesday's fight.
While Posada and Carlson accepted their penalties, Duncan appealed and
remained eligible to play.
After a pair of Toronto players were
hit by pitches Tuesday night, Carlson threw a fastball behind Posada in
the eighth inning of the Blue Jays' 10-4 win. Moments later, Posada
bumped Carlson after scoring a run, and the dugouts and bullpens
emptied.
"That is part of baseball, but
that's a part of baseball that I don't like," Yankees manager Joe
Girardi said. "No pun intended, but it's a black eye for baseball to me
whenever there's a fight or an incident like that because, you know,
someone can really get hurt and you can jeopardize someone's career."
Chad Gaudin started for the Yankees
in place of Andy Pettitte, scratched two days earlier because of a
tired pitching shoulder. Girardi said the goal is for Pettitte to throw
100 pitches Monday but if Pettitte's shoulder still aches, he could be
pushed back beyond Monday.
Gaudin allowed three runs and seven
hits in 5 2/3 innings, failing to hold a 2-0 lead. He also made a nice
spinning grab on Aaron Hill's third-inning comebacker.
Mark Teixeira hit an RBI double in the first and scored on Matsui's single, but the Yankees stalled.
Jose Bautista homered leading off
the third, and Aaron Lind hit an RBI grounder later in the inning. Rod
Barajas had a go-ahead grounder in the sixth for a 3-2 lead after
Vernon Wells led off with an infield single and advanced on Lyle
Overbay's double. Marco Scutaro doubled leading off the seventh against
Brian Bruney and scored on Lind's sacrifice fly off Phil Coke.
Notes
Yankees RHP Ian Kennedy,
coming back from surgery in May to remove an aneurysm below his right
biceps, pitched three perfect innings in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre's
International League championship series game against Durham. He stuck
out six.