Blue Jays end Yankees' winning streak at seven
Photo credit: John Dunn / Newsday | New York Yankees' Nick Swisher (33) strikes out during a baseball game against the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday, August 10, 2009, at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New York. The Blue Jays beat the Yankees 5-4.
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After their dreamy extended weekend against the Red Sox, the Yankees returned to work last night. Who could blame them if they had a little trouble punching the clock after leaving their historic rivals in tatters Sunday night after a four-game sweep?
"Those were four really good days for us," manager Joe Girardi said before the game.
Girardi said it would be "business as usual" last night, but the first sign that wasn't so was the identity of his starting pitcher. The Yankees moved things around in their rotation last week in part so Sergio Mitre wouldn't have to face the Red Sox. But he had to face someone, and last night it was the Toronto Blue Jays.
It was Mitre's fifth start. The Yankees are still waiting for a good one.
Mitre (1-1) allowed five runs (three earned) in five innings, and Toronto ended the Yankees' seven-game winning streak with a 5-4 victory at the Stadium.
The wins over Boston were instant classics - at least to the Yankees and their fans. Last night's game was a classic of another sort: a classic letdown after a huge, emotional series.
Lyle Overbay's tie-breaking home run in the fifth inning was the difference. The Yankees got solo home runs from Derek Jeter, Robinson Cano and Jerry Hairston Jr., but did not score after Toronto took a 5-4 advantage on Overbay's bomb off the back wall in the Yankees' bullpen in right-centerfield.
The Yankees were leading 2-1 in the fourth when Toronto scored three times to take a 4-2 lead. Two of the runs were unearned because of an error originally charged to Cano when he failed to catch a throw from Mitre on a potential double-play ball.
Mitre hesitated and then threw high and to the first-base side on Jose Bautista's none-out comebacker. "I think it's an error on Mitre,'' Girardi said. After the game, the official scorer also came to that conclusion and gave Mitre the error.
The Yankees tied it in the bottom of the inning on consecutive home runs from Cano and Hairston, his first as a Yankee.
The Yankees had a chance to tie it in the sixth when Cano led off with a double against reliever Shawn Camp (1-5). But he got no farther than third base.
Girardi has championed Mitre, the 28-year-old sinkerballer who pitched for him in 2006 with the Marlins. Based on Mitre's first five outings, it's not entirely clear why Girardi is so infatuated. But after the game Girardi said Mitre definitely will make his next start.
Alfredo Aceves threw four scoreless innings in relief of Mitre one day after he was unavailable because of a sore lower back.
Mitre allowed two hits but struck out the side in the first inning; he gave up six earned runs in his four previous first innings. After Jeter put the Yankees ahead, Mitre had a 1-2-3 second before Aaron Hill homered with one out in the third to tie it at 1. That snapped a streak of 241/3 scoreless innings by Yankees starters.
The Blue Jays were playing without rightfielder Alex Rios, whom they let go on waivers to the White Sox about an hour before gametime. Toronto said goodbye to Rios for nothing so that the White Sox would assume the approximately $60 million he has left on his contract through 2014.
