Yanks pound Jays' bullpen in 10-4 win
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Mark Teixeira homered and Ichiro Suzuki drove in five runs, as the first-place Yankees took down the bottom-dwelling Blue Jays, 10-4, in the opener of a three-game series.
Robinson Cano and Nick Swisher each had two hits, two runs scored and an RBI, while Freddy Garcia (6-5) gave up two runs on five hits and did not walk a batter in New York's third straight win.
"I felt fine," said Garcia. "Hopefully I can continue pitching the way I've been pitching."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Kelly Johnson went 2-for-4 with a home run and two RBI for Toronto, which was coming off a disastrous 2-8 road trip that ended in a three-game sweep at the hands of the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Yankees did not record an extra-base hit against Ricky Romero (8-9), who was removed before the eighth despite retiring the last 10 batters he faced.
"I felt great, I felt like I finished strong," said Romero. "I got back to that delivery I've kind of been looking for, and felt like I found it towards the end, and can't say enough about [pitching coach] Bruce Walton. He's helped me a lot and he has been one of the guys that has stuck with me throughout all of this."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Teixeira wasted little time abusing Toronto's bullpen, as the slugger hit a towering homer to right on the first pitch he saw from Steve Delabar. Delabar later yielded a two-run single to Suzuki that pushed New York's lead to 6-2.
Toronto had runners on the corners and no outs in the home half of the eighth, but only managed one run on Colby Rasmus' double-play ground ball.
More shoddy relief work and a bad play in the field led to four more Yankees runs in the ninth. Swisher doubled in Derek Jeter and scored on Raul Ibanez's pinch-hit single to make it 8-3.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Suzuki came up with the bases loaded and hit a fly ball to left that Rajai Davis missed, resulting in two more runs for the visitors.
Jeff Mathis' RBI single in the home half accounted for the final margin.
Romero was charged with three runs -- two earned -- on four hits and three walks. The unearned run came in the second when Mathis threw wildly to third trying to catch Andruw Jones advancing on a sacrifice bunt.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Jones scored easily as the ball sailed into left field, and the Yankees pushed another run across later in the inning on Suzuki's bases-loaded fielder's choice grounder.
Johnson cut the deficit in half with a home run to right in the bottom half, but New York got the run back on Cano's RBI single in the third.
Garcia gave up three straight one-out hits in the fourth, the last a run- scoring single by Johnson. The veteran hurler stranded two in scoring position by striking out Omar Vizquel and getting Mathis on a comebacker to the mound.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Game Notes
The Blue Jays dropped to six games below .500 (53-59) for the first time since the end of the 2009 season...Romero has dropped his last eight decisions...Garcia came in 7-8 with a 6.02 ERA all-time versus the Blue Jays.