Seven-run fifth carries Jays past Yankees

As Alex Rodriguez's quest for his 600th career homer extended to another day, the Yankees have something more pressing to concern themselves with.

No longer can they call first place their own.

The Yankees lost at home last night to the Blue Jays, 8-6, after the Rays beat the Twins, creating a tie for first at 66-39 in the AL East. The Yankees had been alone atop the division since June 20. "I've said I thought this thing is going to go down to the wire," Joe Girardi said.

Nick Swisher hit two home runs and Mark Teixeira had one, giving each 22 for the season. While Rodriguez went 0-for-5 to extend his homerless stretch to 43 at-bats - he is 3-for-30 in his last eight games - he was far from the reason why the Yankees lost this game. That tag belongs mostly to A.J. Burnett, who morphed back into the pitcher who frustrated the Yankees with his struggles in June.

After two consecutive strong starts in which he tossed a total of 111/3 scoreless innings, Burnett (9-9) took several big steps backward, looking more like the pitcher who went 0-5 with a 11.35 ERA in June. He was charged with eight runs in 42/3 innings, seven of them in a fifth inning that featured six doubles (the last off Sergio Mitre) and a homer by Edwin Encarnacion. Burnett also allowed Vernon Wells' 21st homer in the second.

The six doubles in the inning tied an American League record and were one off the major-league record. The other times it happened in the AL were by the Senators against the Red Sox on June 9, 1934, and the Rangers against Mike Mussina and the Yankees on July 31, 2002. But that certainly wasn't the historic feat fans came to see.

Rodriguez's search for his 600th home run - which began at Yankee Stadium July 22 - returned to the Bronx, much to the delight to the fans already holding tickets for last night's game. There was an announced crowd of 47,034 at the Stadium, and a handful of them arrived with signs in support of Rodriguez. Every time he batted, most of the fans stood in anticipation. And with each pitch, hundreds of flashbulbs went off.

"It's easy to say, 'Don't think about it,' [but] he is asked about it every day and there are flashbulbs going off every time he goes up and they change the balls," Girardi said. "I don't know how you don't think about it."

A-Rod, who grounded out three times and struck out twice, laughed when asked if he is distracted by the hoopla surrounding each at-bat. "I'm used to it," he said. "It's been about a month."

Swisher's two-run shot in the first gave Burnett an early lead. Wells hit an opposite-field shot in the second and the Blue Jays took an 8-2 lead with that seven-run fifth, highlighted by a two-run shot by Encarnacion and two doubles by Travis Snider.

The Yankees cut into that deficit with a two-run home run by Teixeira in the fifth, an RBI single by Lance Berkman in the sixth and a solo shot by Swisher in the ninth. But Teixeira struck out and Rodriguez grounded out to end the game.

The news that the Yankees had lost sole possession of first was taken in stride. "What's the date? August 2?" Swisher said, glancing back at his locker to look at the schedule for emphasis. "We've got two big months ahead of us so it doesn't really mean much to me right now."