Blue Jays' Romero baffles Yanks; A-Rod homerless again

The interminable wait for Alex Rodriguez's 600th home run will go on for at least another day after A-Rod went 0-for-3 in the Yankees' 8-2 loss to the Blue Jays last night at Yankee Stadium.

Of far more importance to the Yankees? The loss was their third in a row and knocked them out of first place in the AL East, one game behind the victorious Rays. They are now the wild-card leading Yankees, which doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

Ricky Romero threw a two-hitter and Travis Snider hit a tiebreaking, two-run home run off Dustin Moseley in the fourth inning, one of four longballs by the Blue Jays.

Romero (9-7, 3.37 ERA) allowed a two-run homer to Mark Teixeira in the first inning, his team-leading 23rd. Rodriguez followed with a strikeout, disappointing the crowd of 46,480, which included former president Bill Clinton in the owner's box.

Rodriguez's other at-bats produced a soft liner to second base and a fly ball to medium centerfield. The milestone-hungry crowd went bonkers on the fly-ball swing until it became clear the ball was going to be caught about 100 feet shy of the fence. The game ended with Rodriguez in the on-deck circle.

A-Rod hasn't homered since July 22, hasn't had a hit in his last 17 at-bats, and is 9-for-46 (.196) since hitting No. 599.

Is it a distraction?

To him? Probably. To the team? Probably not. But it can't be helping.

"We want him to hit it," Derek Jeter said. "We'll be happy for him. But when I'm hitting, I'm not thinking about Alex having 599 home runs. He's going to hit a home run, whether it's tomorrow or next week or next year. People want him to do it and get it over with, but it's not easy to hit a home run. You'd have to ask him what he's thinking, but I'm pretty sure once he hits it, everything will be fine."

Rodriguez could not be asked because he chose not to speak with the media after the game. Today is the three-year anniversary of his 500th home run, which could be a good omen. Or could mean absolutely nothing if the pressure is getting to A-Rod.

"It's hard to tell if a guy's pressing," Joe Girardi said. "He's not making any faces that shows me that he's pressing . . . Right now, he's in a little funk. Not getting any hits. The biggest thing about milestones is sometimes they get in the way a little bit and you hope that guys don't think about it too much, but this is a pretty big milestone and we've got to get through it."

The Yankees' other hit was Marcus Thames' infield single in the fifth. Romero retired the final 15 batters.

"He knows how to pitch," Jeter said. "We scored those two runs early and after that we couldn't get anything going."

Moseley (1-1, 4.13) allowed five runs in 71/3 innings in his second start as a Yankee. He left one out after allowing a solo home run to Vernon Wells in the eighth. Kerry Wood gave up Aaron Hill's solo homer to make it 6-2.

Jose Bautista's two-run shot, his major league-leading 33rd, off Sergio Mitre in the ninth completed the evening's home-run hitting. For the 12th straight game, none was hit by the guy most of the fans came to see.