• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers
• Game Tracker

Granderson leads Yankees past Blue Jays

Jul 18, 2011 - 12:30 AM Toronto, ON (Sports Network) - Curtis Granderson had two hits, knocked in three runs and scored once to help lead the New York Yankees past the Toronto Blue Jays, 7-2, in the finale of a four-game series.

Brett Gardner went 3-for-4 and crossed the plate three times as New York won for the fourth time in six games.

Phil Hughes (1-2) went six innings, allowing two runs on four hits and two walks while striking out five for the win.

"He was great today. He had good command and good composure out there," Yankees catcher Russell Martin said of Hughes. "He just looked confident."

Carlos Villanueva (5-2) allowed five runs on eight hits and a walk through six innings. He also struck out six as the Jays lost their second straight contest after having their five-game win streak snapped.

A Gardner single, a Mark Teixeira walk and a Robinson Cano single loaded the bases for the Yankees with one out in the first. Nick Swisher followed with a line-drive single to right that scored Gardner, but a strikeout by Jorge Posada and a liner to short by Russell Martin limited the damage to just one run.

Edwin Encarnacion led off the second with a double into the right-center gap and Travis Snider followed with single into left, scoring Encarnacion and knotting the game at one.

Swisher started the fourth with a single and came around to score two batters later when Martin laced a first-pitch double into right-center field. An Eduardo Nunez base hit put runners on the corners, and Martin came home on Ramiro Pena's sacrifice fly to deep center field. After a Gardner single to right, Granderson pulled a two-run double down the first-base line to give New York a 5-1 lead.

"It was a hole that was a little too big for us to dig out of today," Blue Jays manager John Farrell said. "We had limited offensive opportunities."

Encarnacion worked a one-out walk, moved to third on Snider's ground-rule double and scored on Aaron Hill's sacrifice fly to right, cutting the Yankees' lead to three.

But New York got that run back in the seventh off of reliever Luis Perez. Granderson reached first on a fielder's choice, advanced to third on a base hit by Teixeira and came home on Cano's sac fly to right field.

Granderson's RBI single in the ninth extended the Yankees' cushion.

After Snider's double in the fourth inning, Yunel Escobar's walk in the sixth was the only baserunner Toronto would manage for the remainder of the game. They finished the day with just four hits and two walks.

Game Notes

The Yankees recalled outfielder Chris Dickerson from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and optioned outfielder Greg Golson to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre prior to Sunday's game...Toronto third baseman Jose Bautista missed his third straight game with an injured ankle...Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter was given the day off...Escobar has now reached base safely in a season-high 22 consecutive contests...The Yankees improved their major league-best record in day games to 28-5.