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Davis, Blue Jays hold off Yankees

Sep 30, 2012 - 2:11 AM Toronto, ON (Sports Network) - Rajai Davis went 3-for-4 with a solo home run and an RBI single, and the Toronto Blue Jays held the New York Yankees scoreless after the first inning to earn a 3-2 victory at Rogers Centre.

The Yankees, who have lost two of the first three in this four-game set, fell into a tie with Baltimore atop the AL East with four games remaining. The Orioles beat the Boston Red Sox, 4-3, Saturday night.

New York's magic number to clinch a playoff berth remains at two. After Sunday's series finale, the Yankees will host the Red Sox for their final three games of the regular season.

Blue Jays starter Ricky Romero exited after the third inning with a knee injury, and five Blue Jays relievers combined to allow only three hits and two walks to carry the club to its fourth win in six games.

Shawn Hill (1-0) hurled three hitless innings to earn the win.

"An outstanding job by the bullpen today," Blue Jays manager John Farrell commented. "Ricky was suffering from some discomfort in that left kneecap area, just above it, where the quadricep attaches to it."

Andy Pettitte (5-4), who tossed 11 scoreless frames in his previous two starts off the disabled list, surrendered three runs on five hits and three walks over 5 2/3 innings to take the loss.

"We had plenty of opportunities today to get some runs. We just didn't get it done," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said.

The Yankees pushed two across in the first frame before their bats went quiet.

Davis golfed a 3-2 slider over the left-field wall in the home first and came up with runners on the corners and two outs in the fifth. The speedster hit a chopper down the third-base line and beat out Alex Rodriguez's throw to knock in the tying run in Jeff Mathis, who led off the inning with a double.

The Blue Jays chased Pettitte in the sixth when Mathis flew out to deep center field with two on. Yunel Escobar advanced to third on the flyout, and Adeiny Hechavarria greeted Joba Chamberlain with a double off the right-field wall.

Escobar scored easily on the play to put Toronto ahead, 3-2, though Yan Gomes was thrown out after making a wide turn at third base.

Brad Lincoln and Aaron Loup combined to throw a scoreless seventh before Steve Delabar survived Gomes' error in the eighth.

Casey Janssen worked around a two-out single in the ninth to pick up his 21st save of the season.

Early on, Romero loaded the bases by giving up two singles and a walk to start the game, and sacrifice flies from Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson gave the Yankees the lead.

New York again filled the bags with no outs in the third, but came up empty as Granderson popped out, Andruw Jones swung through a payoff pitch and Eduardo Nunez lined out sharply to second.

Romero did not make it out of the dugout for the fourth and was charged with two runs on six hits, walking two and striking out three.

Game Notes

The Yankees went 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position and had two runners thrown out trying to steal second base ... The Blue Jays had lost Romero's previous seven starts against New York ... Romero, Toronto's Opening Day starter, set career highs in ERA (5.77), WHIP (1.67) and walks (105) over 32 starts ... Davis, who went 4-for-4 on Friday, ended a string of seven consecutive hits with a strikeout in the seventh inning ... Cano, one day after taking a pitch off his left hand, had two of New York's nine hits ... Derek Jeter began the game as New York's designated hitter, but replaced Nunez at shortstop in the sixth inning.