NEW YORK – Curtis Granderson hit a three-run homer, Mark Teixeira also went deep and the New York Yankees powered their way to a 5-2 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday.
Jorge Posada broke out of an 0-for-19 slump and Francisco Cervelli added an RBI groundout in his first game back from the disabled list, helping the Yankees take the final two games against the Blue Jays and remain unbeaten (5-0-1) in home series.
Ivan Nova (2-2) pieced together his second straight positive outing for New York, allowing two runs on six hits over 5 1-3 innings. He worked around six hits and four walks.
Mariano Rivera worked a perfect ninth inning for his 10th save.
Adam Lind hit a solo homer, Rajai Davis swiped three bases and David Cooper had his first two career hits for Toronto, but it still wasn't enough support for Jesse Litsch (2-2) against a team fast becoming his nemesis.
Litsch allowed five runs on six hits and two walks, losing for the fourth straight time against the Yankees. He is 1-5 with a 6.03 ERA in seven career starts against them.
Teixeira got to the burly right-hander early, driving a pitch over the right-field wall for his third first-inning homer of the season and seventh overall.
Lind answered with a homer in the second inning, and Toronto pulled ahead in the third, when Davis drew a leadoff walk, then played cat-and-mouse on the basepaths to swipe second and third. He eventually scored on Jose Bautista's groundout.
Nova settled down after that, and the Yankees gave him four more runs in the fifth.
Posada doubled to right field to snap his bedeviling slump, and Brett Gardner followed with a single to right, before Cervelli's run-scoring groundout tied the game.
Derek Jeter reached on a fielder's choice moments later, when he grounded to Yunel Escobar and the shortstop tried to cut down Gardner at third base. His throw was high and Gardner was able to slide in safe, putting runners on the corners. Granderson followed with a high fly ball that kept carrying over the right-field wall, his eighth homer of the season.
The Blue Jays put a pair of runners on in the seventh, but reliever Boone Logan made a nifty behind-the-back grab on a sharp groundball by Lind and threw him out to end the threat.
Toronto stranded nine on base, at least one every inning except the first and last.
NOTES: Bautista left the game in the seventh inning with neck tightness. ... Yankees RHP Phil Hughes plans to see a specialist in St. Louis on Monday to determine whether he has thoracic outlet syndrome, a rare circulatory disorder that could be causing his pronounced drop in velocity. He's been on the DL with what the team has called a "dead arm."
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