Yankees can't get big hit in 5-3 loss

For the Yankees, there was little pleasing to the eye Friday night at the Stadium.

Freddy Garcia had little of the control he displayed in his first two starts and both teams made ugly throwing errors. Toronto's didn't prove costly, but David Robertson's miscue helped the Blue Jays score two runs.

The most unsightly aspect of all might have been the Yankees' performance at the plate with runners aboard, probably the biggest contributor to an ugly 5-3 loss to the Blue Jays. They were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on base. (The Blue Jays were 1-for-10 and left 11 on base.)

Robinson Cano hit two solo homers, giving him four home runs in the last four games and a team-leading eight for the season, and Russell Martin had an RBI double. But the Yankees loaded the bases with none out in the fifth, put runners on first and second with two outs in the seventh and loaded the bases with one out in the eighth and were unable to get any of those runners home.

Ricky Romero needed only two pitches to escape the jam in the fifth, as Mark Teixeira popped to short and Alex Rodriguez hit into a 6-4-3 double play. In the seventh, Rodriguez struck out to end the threat. And in the eighth, Derek Jeter struck out and Nick Swisher grounded out on the first pitch.

Rodriguez is in a 3-for-23 slump, and Joe Girardi said, "It's what you go through as a hitter. You're not always going to be 2-for-4 and you're going to have your ups and downs. But I do think he is healthy.''

Said Teixeira, "He threw a good hard inside fastball. He bored in on my hands a little. Just a bad at-bat.''

Garcia, who didn't allow a run in 12 innings in his first two starts and walked a total of three in those outings, walked five Friday night, laboring through five innings in which he allowed three runs and seven hits. He exited with a 3-2 deficit.

Robertson started the sixth by walking Rajai Davis, who reached second on Yunel Escobar's groundout and stole third. Jose Bautista walked to put runners at the corners, and with Adam Lind up, Robertson stepped off the rubber, faked to third and caught Bautista taking off for second. Robertson looked Davis back, then hurried his throw to second and threw the ball over Cano's head for a run. Juan Rivera's single made it 5-2 as Bautista narrowly beat Brett Gardner's throw to the plate.

Said Robertson, "I panicked. I didn't set my feet and make a good throw to Robby . . . I screwed up tonight. No one to blame but me.''

Bautista had given the Blue Jays a 2-1 lead in the third with a two-run homer. J.P. Arencibia homered in the fourth to make it 3-1.

Cano, 2-for-16 against Romero entering the game, cut the deficit to 3-2 in the bottom of the fourth with a home run to rightfield. He made it 5-3 with another line drive into the rightfield stands in the eighth.

In the bottom of the fifth, Gardner reached on an infield single and Jeter followed with a bunt single. Swisher then lined a shot at third baseman Edwin Encarnacion, who dropped the ball and could have turned a double play, maybe even a triple play. Gardner assumed the ball was caught and tried to dive back to second. As he did, Encarnacion threw wildly into rightfield for an error that loaded the bases. But two pitches later, Romero was out of the inning.