Yankees Defeat Jays 6-4

As the Toronto Blue Jays play out the string, Brett Cecil is looking for some consistency in the final weeks of his first big-league season.

He didn’t have it on Saturday afternoon. Cecil gave up home runs to Robinson Cano and Mark Teixeira as the New York Yankees downed Toronto 6-4 in front of 31,295 at Rogers Centre.

“I’ve just got to figure out a way to stay in the groove that I’m in,” said Cecil (6-4).

The rookie left-hander gave up seven hits, walked three, hit a batter and struck out four in 4 1-3 innings.

“I seem to have a couple of 1-2-3 innings, really good innings, and some not-so-good innings,” said Cecil.

Andy Pettitte (13-6) got the win, giving up four runs and four hits to go along with five walks.

Phil Hughes picked up his third save.

Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston said the 99 pitches Cecil threw is what concerns him most about Saturday’s outing.

“You can’t pitch like that,” Gaston said. “You can’t throw that many pitches.”

Cecil agreed and he has one more scheduled start this season before the team shuts him down for the year.

“It’s all just a matter of getting my mechanics the same way for every pitch,” Cecil said. “I’ve really got to repeat my delivery and make every pitch the same way. The more I can repeat and make my delivery look the same every time, the better I’m going to be.

“It’s definitely going to be a winter project.”

Cecil has pitched 136 1-3 innings between triple-A Las Vegas and Toronto this season.

Pettitte improved his career record at Rogers Centre to 15-5 and is 20-12 overall against the Blue Jays.

Jorge Posada led off the second with a walk and scored from third on Melky Cabrera’s one-out single.

The Blue Jays thought they had tied it on a home run on the second pitch of the bottom of the inning on Randy Ruiz’s drive over the wall in left.

But it was ruled foul after video review. Ruiz returned to the plate and grounded out to third.

There was no doubt about Cano’s 23rd homer of the season on the first pitch of the fourth, a drive to right that put the Yankees ahead 2-0.

And there was no question about Ruiz’s second attempt at hitting his sixth homer since his call-up from triple-A in the bottom of the inning. The two-out drive cleared the fence in left centre to make the score 2-1.

Pettitte walked the next two batters and John McDonald, starting in left field for the first time in his career, blooped a single to right that tied the game.

Jose Bautista also tried to score on the play but was called out at home on the throw from second baseman Cano who had retrieved the ball in shallow right.

Teixeira restored the lead by leading off the fifth with his 33rd homer of the season. The Yankees tacked on two against Casey Janssen in the sixth on two-out run-scoring singles by Alex Rodriguez and Posada.

The Blue Jays came back with two in the bottom of the sixth. Edwin Encarnacion walked with one out and scored on Bautista’s triple. Bautista came home when shortstop Jeter was charged with an error on his throw to third.

Cabrera singled in a run in the ninth against Jason Frasor with the run charged to Scott Downs.

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