Yankees lose to Blue Jays, 4-1

TORONTO -- Nothing visibly out of whack is happening to Yankee hitters when they come up with runners in scoring position.

No knees knocking together, no hands shaking or bodies quaking.

But they have been flat-out wretched in those situations much of the season and especially this month, and the disturbing trend continued Thursday night in a 4-1 loss to the Blue Jays in front of 31,266 at Rogers Centre.

"Struggling," Derek Jeter said. "That pretty much sums it up, doesn't it?"

Just about.

One night after going 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position and two nights after going 1-for-9 in Baltimore, the Yankees, losers of three straight, which has dumped them into fourth in the AL East, went 0-for-8 Thursday night.

The Yankees are 3-for-41 with RISP in their last five games.

"Of course you're frustrated," said Mark Teixeira, who went 0-for-4, ending two innings in which the Yankees had a runner at second. "We expect to score six, seven runs a game, that's just the way our team is. But the one thing about our team is we never give up. We've been through tough stretches before."

For his part Teixeira, with a hacking cough he's had for more than a month and that he's taking the non-anabolic steroid prednisone for -- it's had almost no effect -- looks ready for a day off. He said it's something he'll talk to manager Joe Girardi about but isn't sure of the impact.

"If you could guarantee me that it would make me feel better, I'd love that guarantee," said Teixeira, now hitting .228 with a .283 OBP. "But I just don't know if it's going to help. We'll see if maybe it makes sense. I'll probably talk to Joe a little bit."

Girardi, as he did the previous two nights, took the "they'll come out of it soon," route, and wants the clubhouse to do the same.

"The important thing is they stay positive in there, they don't get too focused on their struggles," Girardi said. "They understand, keeping putting [runners] on and eventually this is going to turn and we're going to come out of this. Even in the ninth inning, I felt we were going to get it done."

Instead, the Yankees went down in order in the ninth, the final stretch of 10 straight retired by Blue Jays' pitching.

Thursday night after scoring once in the first inning -- Robinson Cano doubled in Curtis Granderson -- and being set down in order in the second, the Yankees had a runner reach second in each of the next four innings and came up empty each time.

Phil Hughes (3-5) didn't go as deep into the game as his last start, but pitched well enough to win, allowing two runs and seven hits in 51/3 innings.

"I felt like my fastball was good and everything else was kind of erratic," Hughes said. "It was a struggle."

The most damaging of those hits was Jose Bautista's two-run homer off a full-count cutter in the third that gave the Blue Jays, who moved ahead of the Yankees in the standings, a 2-1 lead.

And that would be all for the Yankees against Toronto righty Drew Hutchinson (one run, five hits in six innings) and the three Blue Jays' relievers.

"I don't see our guys doing anything different than what they normally do," Girardi said of their approach. "It's just not happening now."

The Yankees trail the Orioles by 4½ games and lead only the last place Red Sox -- by 2½ games -- in the division.

Of course, there are also 124 games remaining for the Yankees. so the significance of that is next to nothing.

"You drive yourself crazy if you start looking at the scoreboard in the middle of May," Jeter said. "I don't see anybody popping champagne in the middle of May, just like I don't see anyone hanging their heads in the middle of May.

"We need to play better, that's the bottom line."