Yankees 10, Blue Jays 4
TORONTO -- Right-hander Freddy Garcia needed just 78 pitches in six innings to hold the Toronto Blue Jays to two runs and Ichiro Suzuki batted in five runs in the New York Yankees' 10-4 victory before 41,610 at Rogers Centre on Friday.
Garcia (6-5) held the Blue Jays to five hits and no walks while striking out four.
Toronto left-hander Ricky Romero (8-9) allowed three runs (two earned) on four hits and three walks over seven innings. The Blue Jays committed two errors behind him.
Kelly Johnson drove in two runs for the Blue Jays with a homer and a double.
Mark Teixeira hit his 22nd homer of the season on the first pitch of the eighth inning thrown by reliever Steve Delabar and the Yankees scored two more in the inning to go ahead 6-2.
Toronto (53-59) has lost four games in a row and the Yankees (66-46) have won three in a row.
Romero settled down and retired 14 of 16 batters after Cano's RBI single with one out in the third.
Garcia retired his final eight batters after Johnson's RBI double in the fourth before left-hander Boone Logan replaced him to start the seventh. Logan retired his only two batters and Joba Chamberlain got the final out.
After Teixeira's homer led off the eighth, the Yankees got two-out singles from Nix, Martin and Ichiro to produce two more runs.
Anthony Gose led off the bottom of the eighth with a single against Chamberlain and then stole second and third after David Robertson took over on the mound for New York. Gose scored when Colby Rasmus bounced into a double play. Rasmus then came out of the game after a recurrence of a groin strain.
The Yankees padded their lead in the ninth against David Carpenter on a single by Derek Jeter, a run-scoring double by Nick Swisher, an intentional walk to Robinson Cano and a single by pinch-hitter Raul Ibanez. Russell Martin was hit by a pitch and Brad Lincoln came in to give up a two-run double by Ichiro.
David Cooper and Yan Gomes singled against Clay Rapada and Jeff Mathis singled against Cody Eppley to produce a run for Toronto in the ninth. Romero fell behind 3-0 in the count to three of his first five batters in the game.
It caught up to him in the second when he fell behind 3-0 to the first two batters: Robinson Cano, who eventually singled; and Andruw Jones, who walked.
It got worse when Jayson Nix put down a sacrifice bunt and Jeff Mathis tried to make the play at third, but wound up with an error when his throw went to the outfield. Cano scored and Jones took third.
Russell Martin walked to load the bases and the second run scored when Ichiro Suzuki forced Martin at second.
Johnson got one back for Toronto with his 13th homer in the bottom of the second.
The Yankees scored again in the third. Swisher led off with a single, took second on a groundout and scored on Cano's single.
The Blue Jays scored once on three successive hits in the fourth. Yunel Escobar bunted for a single with one out and took second on David Cooper's single. Johnson doubled to cut the Yankees lead to 3-2.
NOTES: Carpenter was promoted from Class AAA Las Vegas as a roster replacement for 3B Brett Lawrie of Langley, B.C., (strained right oblique), who went on the 15-day disabled list Thursday. Carpenter, who was obtained in the July 20 trade with Houston, was 0-1 with a 1.93 earned-run average with Las Vegas. ... RHP Juan Abreu was claimed off waivers from Houston on Friday and assigned to Las Vegas. RHP Scott Richmond was designated for assignment to make room for Abreu on the 40-man roster. ... Friday was the 59th consecutive day in which the Yankees have been first in the AL East, their longest stretch in first since they led for the final 77 days of the 2009 season. ... RHP Ivan Nova (10-6, 4.81 ERA) will start for New York Saturday against LHP Aaron Laffey (3-2, 4.39 ERA).
