Yankees Bloop Blue Jays, 6-4

The Yankees slugged 3 home runs and Andy Phillips had the game winning hit for the 2nd straight night as the Yankees topped the Blue Jays, 6-4. The Blue Jays matched the Yankees' home run output as Troy Glaus hit a pair of shots off of Kei Igawa and Alex Rios tied the game with a shot off of Scott Proctor.

Josh Towers retired the first two men in the Yankees' half of the 6th, but Jorge Posada sliced a single to left and Robinson Cano narrowly missed his 2nd home run of the night when he doubled halfway up the wall in right-center. Without two runners in scoring position, Towers (4-6) made a pretty good to Phillips, but the Yankees' 1st Baseman blooped a single in front of centerfielder Vernon Wells for a 2 run lead.

The Blue Jays tried to rally in the 9th against Mariano Rivera. Glaus nearly had a third HR when his drive hit the wall in center and bounded past Melky Cabrera for a lead off triple. But Rivera struck out Frank Thomas swinging and K'ed Lyle Overbay looking for the first two outs of the inning. Aaron Hill then grounded sharply to Alex Rodriguez who recorded the
final out with some help by Phillips, who had to stretch out to keep his foot on the bag.

For the first time this season Rivera, who picked up his 14th save, recorded saves in 3 consecutive games. The only multiple save occurrence this season was May 3rd in a doubleheader sweep of Texas.

The Yankees took a 2-0 lead in the 2nd when Hideki Matsui and Cano hit solo shots. For Matsui, it was his 14th of the season and 6th in the last 10 games. He also extended his hitting streak to 11 games in the process. Cano's HR was his 7th and his 4th in July.

Igawa worked out of jams in the first two innings, but couldn't escape trouble in the 3rd. After a lead off walk to Vernon Wells, Glaus blasted his 13th HR run of the season to deep left-center to tie the game.

The Yankees took the lead right back in their half of the inning. With a man aboard and one out, Bobby Abreu narrowly beat out a potential double play ball to keep the inning alive. A-Rod made Abreu's hustle count when he blasted his 32nd of the season and number 496 for his career.

In the 5th, Glaus took Igawa deep again for his 14th of the season, cutting the deficit to 4-3. Glaus' HRs were the 270th and 271st of his career. Igawa would finish the inning, but that was it for him for the night. His numbers were less than stellar. 5 IP, 7 hits, 3 earned runs, 4 walks, and 7 strikeouts.

Proctor (2-5) had an up and down 6th inning in relief of Igawa. After giving up a lead off single to Royce Clayton, but got Reed Johnson to bounce into a double play. The inning really went up and down as in the a ball off the bat of Alex Rios went way up and down into the left field seats to tie the game. It was the 19th home run of the season for Rios, who was the runner up to Vlad Guerrero in the All-Star break home run derby.

...

Melky Cabrera had an infield single in the 6th to extend his hitting streak to 12 games.

Andy Phillips is 15-40 (.375) with 6 RBI in July.
Luis Vizcaino threw a scoreless 8th inning, which could (and hopefully will be) the way Torre uses him in the future.

The Yankees remained 9 games back of Boston, but pulled within 7.5 of Cleveland for the wild card.

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