Bautista wins Home Run Derby vs. Grandy

It turns out that Jose Bautista and Curtis Granderson played together for the 2005 Tigres del Licey in Dominican winter ball. "For about four or five weeks," Granderson recalled Monday night.

"We have stayed in touch the last couple of offseasons, every now and then," Bautista said. "This year, we really haven't talked about home runs."

At this latest meeting between MLB's two most prolific sluggers at Yankee Stadium, however, Bautista and Granderson could use their power numbers as a launching point for a more important discussion:

No man is an island, at least on a baseball team. Ultimately, you'll go only as far as your supporting cast will take you. Just ask Barry Bonds, who concluded his career with some pretty lousy Giants teams. And Monday night, Bautista enjoyed a little more help from his friends.

The Yankees' 7-3 loss to Toronto came to fruition not when Bautista hit his MLB-leading 19th homer, a first-inning missile to left-center, but when the Yankees intentionally walked him to help spark a five-run sixth.

"It's not satisfying that they pitched around me," Bautista said. "But it's huge that we were able to score a lot of runs. We need to show teams that every person in this lineup is capable of causing some damage, and we did that tonight."

That's usually the Yankees' area of expertise. For all the whining by Yankees fans, they still lead the league with 238 runs. On this night, however, they couldn't do much against emergency starter Carlos Villanueva, who had a total of two career innings pitched against the Yankees (in a couple of bullpen appearances earlier this season). The Yankees were 2-for-15 with runners in scoring position.

Granderson remained at 16 homers. He walked three times to lead off the fourth, sixth and eighth and scored each time, but the Yankees couldn't do enough behind him. Instead, the focus of the game became the Jays' sixth, and their two free passes.

Bautista's came with Corey Patterson on second, none out and the score tied at 1, and new cleanup hitter Yunel Escobar bunted the runners over to second and third. When the Yankees had Bartolo Colon intentionally walk Juan Rivera to create force plays everywhere, Aaron Hill, Eric Thames and J.P. Arencibia punished Joe Girardi's strategy with an RBI single, RBI walk and three-run double in a span of six pitches for a 6-1 lead.

"I don't want to say they did us a favor, but they put extra baserunners for us on base, and J.P. really came through for us right there," Bautista said.

Bautista leads the majors with 41 walks. He totaled 100 last year, when he went deep a major league-leading 54 times, so either he's getting smarter, opposing teams are, or both.

"In our league, you might have a month, or you might have a two-month period. But if there's weaknesses, with all the video that people can watch and all the scouting, they're going to find it," Girardi said before the game. "And you're not finding it on Bautista. He's making people pay at an alarming rate."

Added Bautista: "It is somewhat gratifying, knowing that a lot of people were skeptical about what happened last year. I guess I'm proving them wrong." Granderson, too, is correcting those who thought by the All-Star break last year that the Yankees had erred in acquiring him.

Granderson rarely is a one-man team, not on this stacked Yankees team and its gargantuan payroll. Yet at this Home Run Derby in the Bronx, too many big names in the home pinstripes served as spectators.