SPORTS

Flawed Yankees fall to Jays again, 5-4

Brian Heyman
bheyman@lohud.com

Toronto Blue Jays left fielder Melky Cabrera makes a sliding catch of Ichiro Suzuki's ninth-inning fly ball to deep left field in Sunday's game at Yankee Stadium.  The Blue Jays defeated the Yankees 5-4.

NEW YORK – Joe Torre stood at the gateway to baseball immortality in Cooperstown Sunday and said, "I'm here because of the Yankees."

Meanwhile, the Yankees were in the process of losing to Toronto for the second straight game after beating the Blue Jays 17 straight times at Yankee Stadium. It's a Yankees team that hasn't exactly given off an aura that it's bound for the championship ending that Torre experienced four times as the manager.

The Jays took the rubber game 5-4 on an RBI single by Dioner Navarro in the ninth, leaving the Yankees at 7-3 for their first post-break homestand and a game back of Toronto for the second wild card.

"It's a team we're fighting with obviously and it's a frustrating loss," said Torre's successor, Joe Girardi. "We fought back a number of times and we were never able to get a lead.

"Our miscues is what cost us in this series, really, when you look at it. We've got to be better at that."

The Yankees headed to Texas for the start of a six-game trip at just 54-50. The offense hasn't scored more than four runs in 12 of the last 14 games. So Josh Willingham, Marlon Byrd and Alex Rios are names churning in the rumor mill with the nonwaiver deal deadline coming Thursday.

Troy Tulowitzki is also the subject of trade speculation. Colorado's injured All-Star shortstop attended the game. He was back East to visit a doctor in Philadelphia about his hip flexor. He told The Denver Post he wanted to see the retiring Derek Jeter play one last time. Jeter said he was unaware.

"I'm focused," Jeter said.

David Robertson lost his in the ninth inning of a 4-4 game after Carlos Beltran had tied it with a two-out RBI single in the eighth.

Melky Cabrera lined a one-out single into left. Jose Bautista hit into a force at second thanks to a great diving stop at third by Chase Headley, who had also teamed with Francisco Cervelli for back-to-back homers in the fifth. Bautista then swiped second without a throw.

"I just let him slip," Robertson said. "I didn't think he'd be going."

Bautista said: "I know there was two outs and I figured it's going to have to be a pretty long extra-base hit for me to score from first because I'm not the fastest guy on the team."

Navarro followed by lining his single into right-center. It marked the first time this season both Robertson and Dellin Betances gave up a run in the same game.

It was 3-3 in the eighth when Betances walked Colby Rasmus to start the inning, then made a wild pickoff throw, allowing Rasmus to race to third. Munenori Kawasaki sent him home with a sac fly.

"My cleat got stuck," Betances said. "As soon as that happened, I had a feeling I was going to throw it away."

Extra bases: Mark Teixeira took 50 swings and reported no problems with the lat that his caused him to miss seven straight games. Girardi didn't rule him out from returning as soon as Monday night. But Teixeira needs to try live batting practice first. … Beltran (elbow bone spur) said he has been throwing for five days. Girardi is hoping he will be able to play right as soon as next week.

Twitter: @bheyman99