Jays hit two solo homers, blank fading Yankees
TORONTO -- Andy Pettitte said he made a terrible mistake on the pitch that Colby Rasmus hit for a solo home run in the fourth inning Tuesday.
Rajai Davis added a solo home run in the seventh, and the Toronto Blue Jays blanked the New York Yankees 2-0 Tuesday night at the Rogers Centre.
"(Rasmus) got me deep in to an at-bat," Pettitte said. "I kept trying to bounce a cutter off the top of the plate, see if I could try and get him to swing. Bad thought process. It was just a bad idea."
It was Rasmus' third homer in three games since coming off the disabled list Sept. 13 and his 21st of the season.
The Yankees (79-72) lost their fourth game in a row, damaging their hopes of earning an American League wild-card playoff spot. New York was coming off three straight losses to the Red Sox, getting outscored 22-7 in the weekend series at Boston.
New York fell to 13-4 against the Jays this season.
"Go to Boston and get swept and then lose the first game here. We're playing terrible, and it's not good. It's a bad time to be doing that," Pettitte said. "If we pitch, we got to score some runs. If we score some runs, we've got to pitch. It seems like we haven't been doing a lot of mixing and matching together."
Toronto starter R.A. Dickey (13-12) improved to 5-1 since the start of August. He allowed four hits and two walks while striking out eight over seven innings.
"I think he was throwing harder tonight, probably the best we've seen him this year, I think," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "When he's on, he can dominate you like he did tonight. We brought him in here to win some games, and he's given us a chance to do that this year."
Pettitte (10-10) went 6 2/3 innings, allowing one run and six hits while striking out five. He had not lost a start since Aug. 5, and he won his three previous starts against Toronto, posting a 1.77 ERA while limiting the Blue Jays (69-81) to four runs on 14 hits over 20 1/3 innings.
"Andy held them down, we just weren't able to do anything," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "It's frustrating, but you've got to go out and win tomorrow, that's the bottom line. We're getting to where we can't lose much more."
In the seventh, Davis took reliever Shawn Kelley's second pitch into the second deck in left field for his sixth home run of the season.
Sergio Santos took over for Dickey in the eighth and immediately received some help from his defense while facing pinch hitter Vernon Wells.
Third baseman Brett Lawrie made a diving stop on a grounder headed for left field and put out Wells in highlight-reel fashion.
Toronto tried to add to its lead in the eighth. With Adam Lind on at first, Anthony Gose doubled to left, but Lind was thrown out at home trying to score.
Blue Jays closer Casey Janssen struck out three in the ninth inning for his 31st save of the season.
NOTES: The Blue Jays placed INF Edwin Encarnacion (wrist) and LHP Brett Cecil (elbow) on the disabled list, ending their seasons. ... Yankees LHP Boone Logan, who has been out of the lineup since Sept. 6 with discomfort in his pitching elbow, is expected to throw a bullpen session Wednesday. ... Yankees LF Alfonso Soriano continues to play through a sprained right thumb. He went 1-for-4 with three strikeouts. ... The Yankees have won the season series with the Blue Jays for the third straight season. ... New York 2B Robinson Cano is one home run shy of tying Dave Winfield for 13th on the Yankees' all-time list. Cano is also one RBI from surpassing Winfield for sole possession of 16th place in franchise history.
