Jeter drives in 5 as Yankees beat Blue Jays 9-3 for sweep

Derek Jeter tied a career high with five RBIs, CC Sabathia earned his 19th win and the New York Yankees polished off a three-game sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays with a 9-3 victory Sunday.

Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Nick Swisher all homered for the AL East leaders, while Sabathia struck out 10 in 7 1-3 innings to win his seventh consecutive start against Toronto.

One big reason for that success: Sabathia has dominated his match-ups with slugger Jose Bautista. The major league home run leader is 0-for-18 with eight strikeouts against the big lefty after going hitless in three tries Sunday.

Bautista did hit a colossal homer off Rafael Soriano in the eighth, cutting it to 5-3 and joining Carlos Delgado (1999, 2000) as the only Blue Jays to sock 40 home runs in successive seasons.

Soriano avoided further damage and New York tacked on four runs in the eighth against Toronto’s bullpen. Swisher hit a two-run shot and Jeter had a two-run single to go with his three-run homer in the third.

It was the fourth time in his career that he has knocked in five runs. The previous time was June 18, 2005, against the Chicago Cubs.

Prized prospect Jesus Montero had two hits for the Yankees, who boosted their record in day games to a big league-best 37-9. They have won four straight and seven of eight overall to move a season-high 32 games over .500 at 85-53.

It was New York’s eighth sweep this season and first of at least three games against Toronto since August 2006 at the old Yankee Stadium.

Brett Cecil (4-8) went six innings for the Blue Jays, who have lost eight of 11. He is 0-4 in seven starts since winning consecutive outings against Texas in late July.

Sabathia (19-7) threw 128 pitches, two shy of his career high, over six innings Tuesday night at Fenway Park to improve to 1-4 in five starts against Boston this season. He was much more efficient against Toronto, which was no surprise.

The 2007 AL Cy Young Award winner is 12-3 in 15 career starts against the Blue Jays, including 3-0 this year and 7-0 since the beginning of the 2007 season. He is 3-0 in his last four outings overall following a two-start skid and ranks second in the majors in wins behind Detroit ace Justin Verlander (21-5).

Sabathia retired 10 in a row after Mark Teahen’s RBI double in the fourth made it 4-2. He needs two strikeouts to join Javier Vazquez and Tim Wakefield as the only active pitchers with 2,000.

Mark Teixeira returned to the New York lineup after missing two games with a sore right knee.

Sabathia was handed an early lead when fill-in shortstop Mike McCoy committed a costly throwing error, allowing Brett Gardner to score an unearned run in the first.

Cecil plunked Gardner on his right hand in the third, putting two on and drawing an argument from acting Blue Jays manager Don Wakamatsu. Jeter followed with a drive to left, his fifth homer of the season and first in 137 at-bats since July 25.

Rodriguez, who returned to the lineup Saturday after missing six games with a sprained left thumb, hit a leadoff shot in the sixth to the short porch in right. It was his 628th career homer and 15th this season. He tied Carl Yastrzemski for 15th place on the career list with 1,816 runs.