Vazquez allows three homers as Jays pound Yankees

TORONTO - After clinching a playoff berth Tuesday night, Joe Girardi ticked off a list of Yankees who could use some rest - Derek Jeter, Robinson Cano, Alex Rodriguez.

All were in the lineup last night, as was Mark Teixeira, who has been battling thumb and toe injuries.

"You see our lineup, we're playing to win this division," Girardi said before the game. "We'll be smart about it, but we're still playing to win the division."

But that was with the position players. On the mound was the banished-to-the-bullpen Javier Vazquez, taking the start for Andy Pettitte, who was pushed to Friday night, and the Yankees never stood a chance. Put in a seven-run deficit by Vazquez, they fell to the Jays, 8-4, at Rogers Centre in front of 33,143 who before the game honored retiring manager Cito Gaston.

"Every game you don't win when you're trying to win a division is a missed opportunity," Teixeira said.

Even more so because of what happened in St. Petersburg, Fla., where the Orioles beat the Rays, keeping Tampa's division lead at half a game. The Yankees end the regular season with a three-game series starting Friday in Boston; the Rays play four in Kansas City starting Thursday night.

"We're in a position where we need help," said Jeter, who went 2-for-4. "You can get all the help in the world; if you don't win your games, it doesn't make any difference."

Vazquez (10-10, 5.32), already in the slim-and-none category to make the postseason roster, looked like a pitcher ready for his season to end. He allowed seven runs and 10 hits in 42/3 innings.

Although Girardi said, "We'll have a lot of discussions over the next few days," Vazquez didn't sound optimistic about his chances.

"If I would have thrown the ball better, I would have helped my case," he said. "That wasn't the case tonight. I just got hit. I had nothing. I didn't feel like my pitches were sharp at all and they just hit me."

His return to the Bronx, seen as a chance at redemption in spring training, hasn't worked out as such. Except for a stretch from mid-May through July 26 when he won seven of 12 starts, Vazquez has struggled.

"Not a good year for me," he said. "Hopefully, as a team we can win a championship. That's really the only thing left I really want."

The Jays hit three homers off Vazquez to give them 247, setting a club record and passing the 2001 Rangers for fifth all time.

Lefty Brett Cecil (15-7, 4.22) entered 3-0 with a 2.22 ERA in four starts against the Yankees this season. He shut them out for five innings before allowing three runs and nine hits in 51/3.

The Yankees' biggest highlight came in the sixth, when Alex Rodriguez's 30th home run gave him his 14th 30-homer, 100-RBI season. It was his 13th consecutive 30-homer season, tying Barry Bonds for the longest such streak.

But otherwise it was another tough night in a month in which the Yankees have gone 12-15.

"It's been a tough month on us, there's no doubt about it," Girardi said. "But it's baseball. You're going to have better months than other months. You had an opportunity to gain a game on them and we didn't do it today."