Game slips away from Romero, Jays

NEW YORK – A pitch away from handing the bullpen a one-run lead after seven strong innings, it all slipped away from Ricky Romero and the Toronto Blue Jays in what seemed like an instant.

The ace left-hander’s stray curveball that hit Curtis Granderson in the back served as the catalyst for a three-run inning that decided things in a 6-4 loss to the New York Yankees on a muggy Saturday afternoon.

Romero (13-10) proceeded to walk Alex Rodriguez on four pitches and then was pulled by acting manager Don Wakamatsu, throwing the rosin bag down to the mound in frustration.

Casey Janssen came on and gave up a two-run double to Robinson Cano, giving the second baseman 101 RBIs for the season, and an RBI single that Nick Swisher ripped through Mike McCoy at shortstop for some insurance.

That was it for the Blue Jays (69-70), who fell to 5-9 against the AL East leading Yankees (84-53) this season before a crowd of 47,744 at the Bronx.

Boone Logan (5-2) recorded two outs in the seventh for the win and David Robertson shut them down in the eighth and ninth innings for his first save.

Romero suffered his first loss since July 16, when New York beat him 4-1 in Toronto, on a trying afternoon for the Blue Jays.

Left-fielder Eric Thames left the game after taking three strikes in his first at-bat with dizziness, third base coach Brian Butterfield was ejected for arguing after Kelly Johnson was called out on strikes to end the third, and shortstop Yunel Escobar came out after grounding out in the fifth with a jammed left wrist.

Thames’s departure brought Dewayne Wise into the game and he tripled and scored on Jose Bautista’s RBI single in the third and hit a solo shot off Bartolo Colon in the fourth to put the Blue Jays up 4-3.

Adam Lind opened the scoring with a solo shot in the second, and J.P. Arencibia brought home Edwin Encarnacion with a sacrifice fly later in the inning.

The Yankees got that all back in the bottom half, on Eduardo Nunez’s RBI single and Francisco Cervelli’s two-run blast on the first pitch he saw from Romero.

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BAUTISTA SORE: Jose Bautista played Saturday after fouling a ball off his left leg in the ninth inning of Friday night’s 3-2 loss.

“When you first saw it, he got it pretty good,” said acting manager Don Wakamatsu. “After the game it didn’t seem to bother him too much. It’s more in the calf area, so it’s going to be sore.”

Wakamatsu expects to DH Bautista on Sunday to give him a bit of a break.

With CC Sabathia starting on Sunday, Adam Lind will get the day off, meaning Edwin Encarnacion will likely play first for a second straight day. Lind was the DH on Saturday.

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NOTES: Catcher Travis d’Arnaud, recently named the double-A Eastern League’s MVP, will play for the American national team at both the IBAF World Cup and Pan American Games in October. … Carlos Villanueva came out of his first appearance since returning from the DL feeling fine, and earning the praise of Wakamatsu. “He did a nice job (Friday),” he said. “It was almost perfect where we wanted to try to get parts of two innings out of him, that’s why we sent him out the second inning, kind of an up and down situation, and put him in a pressure situation right away. That’s not ideal but it worked out that way.”