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Pettitte strong, Jeter homers as Yankees bounce back

Aug 21, 2008 - 3:37 AM TORONTO (Ticker) -- Andy Pettitte threw seven strong innings and Derek Jeter smacked a two-run homer as the New York Yankees rolled to a 5-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday.

Xavier Nady, Johnny Damon and Jason Giambi drove in runs for the Yankees (67-59), who bounced back from Tuesday's 2-1 loss to move within 5 1/2 games of the Boston Red Sox (73-54) for the wild card.

Jeter said the Yankees still believe they can extend their run of playoff appearances to 14 straight years despite what the general public thinks.

"It's our job to go out and prove people wrong," the Yankees' captain said. "People are always going to have opinions. We can't help opinions, but as long as everyone in this clubhouse feels we can win, we'll be fine."

Alex Rios drove in the lone run for Toronto, which had its three-game winning streak snapped.

The Yankees jumped all over Blue Jays rookie lefthander David Purcey (2-4). Damon, Jeter and Bobby Abreu all singled to start the game. Two batters later, Giambi lifted a sacrifice fly and Nady followed with an RBI single to right for a 2-0 lead.

In the fourth, Damon drove in a run with a groundout and Jeter blasted a two-run shot for a five-run bulge. With the homer, Jeter tied Roger Maris for 11th on the Yankees' all-time list with 203.

"At this point, it feels good to contribute," Jeter said. "All we're trying to do is to win some games and every day out is an important game for us."

That was more than enough for Pettitte (13-9), who picked up his first win in five starts by limiting the Blue Jays to one run and five hits with four strikeouts.

The lefthander threw 62 of 83 pitches for strikes and retired 12 of 13 hitters before allowing singles to David Eckstein, Marco Scutaro and Rios in the sixth. Brian Bruney relieved Pettitte and threw two hitless frames.

"(I) really felt good with all my pitches," Pettitte said. "(I) felt like I was able to mix it up, kept 'em off-balance for the most part and got into a good rhythm.

"It was nice that the guys scored a couple runs early. Obviously I felt decent and my command was pretty good."

Eckstein said Pettitte was as good as he remembered. The scrappy shortstop faced Pettitte as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals when Pettitte was with the Houston Astros.

"I faced Pettitte a lot in my career," Eckstein said. "When he has four pitches working, it's pretty tough. We tried to just scrap and find a way to get some runs but it didn't just go (our way) tonight."

Meanwhile, Purcey allowed five runs and seven hits in four innings.

"We were always behind in the count, and when he tried to get ahead in the count, they were pitches that could be hit," Toronto catcher Rod Barajas said. "The pitch to Jeter was where he liked it. You like to get ahead of (Jeter) with quality strikes, but he wasn't doing that tonight."