Jose Bautista homered for the fifth straight game, and the Toronto Blue Jays got solo shots from Melky Cabrera and Edwin Encarnacion to come back from down 3-0 and defeat the New York Yankees 4-3 on Sunday.
With the Yankees ahead 3-0 in the bottom of the sixth inning, Cabrera and Bautista went back-to-back to pull the Blue Jays to within 3-2. Cabrera lauched a two-out pitch into the second deck in right center field off Brandon McCarthy (L: 8-14, 4.19 ERA) for his 16th home run of the season. Baustista followed with his 28th.
In the bottom of the seventh, Encarnacion tied the game at 3-3 with a solo shot (28) of his own. Toronto then took the lead for good an inning later when Muenori Kawasaki singled home Steve Tolleson with an RBI single.
New York jumped out to a very early 1-0 lead on Brett Gardner's lead-off home run (16). Francisco Cervelli singled home Martin Prado in the top of the fourth to extend the lead. The final Yankee run came on a Gardner triple in the fifth, during which shortstop Jose Reyes threw the ball into the Blue Jays dugout on the relay (video) and allowed Gardner to score.
J.A. Happ (W: 9-8, 4.37) pitched seven innings, allowing all three Yankee runs. He allowed nine hits but walked no one and struck out six. Brett Cecil and Casey Janssen (S: 20) held the Yankees scoreless in the last two innings with Janssen picking up his 20th save. Janssen allowed a double to pinch hitter Jacoby Ellsbury to put the tying run on second, but he got Derek Jeter to ground out to end the game, stranding the runner. Ellsbury did not start because of a sore ankle. Ichiro Suzuki pinch ran for him after the double.
The Yankees are now 4.0 games out of the A.L. Wild Card with Toronto hanging on at 5.5 back pending the outcome of the Detroit Tigers' and Kansas City Royals' games. Toronto has Labor Day off and then travels to Tampa Bay and Boston beginning Tuesday. New York also has Monday off and begins a nine-game home stand with Boston, Kansas City, and Tampa Bay beginning Tuesday.