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Arencibia helps Jays down Yanks

May 24, 2011 - 5:34 AM Bronx, NY (Sports Network) - J.P. Arencibia had a three-run double and drove in four, as the Toronto Blue Jays earned a 7-3 victory over the Yankees in the opener of a three-game set.

Jose Bautista clubbed his major-league leading 19th homer of the season, while Aaron Hill added an RBI single and scored twice for Toronto, which has won nine of its last 12.

Carlos Villanueva (2-0), making a spot start in place of Jesse Litsch, who was put on the disabled list with an impingement in his right shoulder, worked five solid innings. Starting his first game since October 3, 2009, the right- hander gave up only one run on two hits, struck out five and walked one.

Robinson Cano went 1-for-3 with three RBI for the Yankees, who had won five of six coming into the contest.

Bartolo Colon (2-3), who turns 38 on Tuesday, had a rough outing, giving up seven hits and six runs with four walks over six innings. He struck out eight.

Despite taking the loss, Colon is still 9-4 lifetime versus the Blue Jays.

"He wasn't quite as sharp as we've seen him," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said about Colon. "He kept us in the game, but we were having trouble scoring off of Villanueva."

Bautista gave Toronto the early edge with a solo shot over the left-center field wall with two outs in the first. The Blue Jays were bidding for more after the next two batters singled, but Colon retired Hill to prevent further damage.

The Yankees stranded a runner on second in the third, then pulled even in the fourth. Curtis Granderson walked to lead off the inning and went to third on Mark Teixeira's base hit. After Alex Rodriguez struck out, Cano's sacrifice fly to center tied the game.

However, Toronto scored five in the sixth, sending nine men to the plate. With the bases loaded and one away, Hill singled through the left side to chase in one and Eric Thames followed with a walk to force in another. Arencibia then stepped in and laced a three-run double to center to make it 6-1.

"I was able to hit it in the gap and it happened to land in there safely and score those runs," Arencibia said.

Cano brought in a run in the home half on a fielder's choice ground ball, but Arencibia's run-scoring single in the eighth put Toronto ahead 7-2.

Cano got the run back in the bottom portion with an RBI base hit.

Frank Francisco came on for the ninth and gave up a leadoff single to Brett Gardner, who stole second and made it to third on a groundout. Francisco retired the next three hitters to end the game.

Game Notes

The clubs have split six matchups this season...Jeter went 0-for-5 and is still 25 hits shy of 3,000 for his career...New York went 2-for-15 with runners in scoring position and stranded eight, while Toronto left five men on base...Rodriguez and Gardner each had a pair of hits, while Granderson scored three times for the Yankees.