Romero knocks Yanks out of AL East lead
The New York suffered their third consecutive loss courtesy of Ricky Romero, who limited the Yankees to two runs on two hits in a dominant 8-2 Blue Jays win on Tuesday at the Bronx.
Romero went the distance against the highest scoring team in baseball for his third complete career game. He was spectacular on the mound, retiring the final 15 batters he faced.
“This time, I didn't let anything rattle me -- I just went out there and kind of did my job and let the defence work," said Romero. "To do this against that team and that lineup here at Yankee Stadium, it's definitely special."
The loss drops New York into second place in the American League East division.
"No one ever said this was going to be easy -- we're in a tough division," manager Joe Girardi said. "There are going to be bumps in the road for every team in the division. You try to keep it as short as possible."
But the Yankees couldn’t have foreseen such a poor performance for their ball club after such a fast start. It didn’t take long for Mark Teixaira to keep his bat hot. In the first inning, Teixaira opened the scoring with a two run shot. This was his 23rd of the year, which is tops on the team.
The game was tied at two in the fourth inning until Travis Snider sent a deep fly ball over the right-centre fence, giving Toronto a lead they would not relinquish.
Unlike Alex Rodriguez’s home run drought, the Blue Jays don’t have that problem and lead the majors in home runs with 167. Vernon Wells proved just that and drilled a solo in the eighth inning. Kerry Wood came in to pitch in the same frame, but the end result was just the same. Aaron Hill homered another shot given the Jays a commanding 6-2 lead. Not to be outdone by his teammates, Jose Batista hammered his league leading 33rd homerun to put the game out of reach.
It is a good thing that a few Yankees’ players are swinging a hot bat, because Rodriguez is not. His quest for career homerun number 600 seems to be a burden for New York’s superstar and he has been a non-factor in his past 12 games. His .266 average is the lowest it’s been in almost three months, and he is not showing any signs that this will change in the upcoming games. Safe to say that Rodriguez is in a slump.
Not only is he struggling to stay afloat on the field, Rodriguez also seems to be at a loss off the field. He missed the team’s picture because “I didn’t get the memo,” he said.
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