Jays Top Punchless Yanks in 14

Mark Teixeira wasn't worried. He knew that every April he struggled. It was commonplace. And he knew that come May his bat would begin to destory opponent's pitches like he did last year and every year before that.

True to form Teixeira began raking as the calendar turned to May. But then something happened. Teixeira has gone back to his April form. Actually he's been worse at times than he was in April. The first baseman's struggles were magnified yesterday as the Yankees couldn't take advantage of another excellent performance by Andy Pettitte and fell to the Toronto Blue Jays 3-2 in 14 innings.

Aaron Hill singled off Edwin Encarnacion in the bottom of the 14th to drop Chad Gaudin's record to 0-3. But it wasn't the Yankees pitching that cost them their second straight game north of the border.

Teixeira was the poster child for the offense's inability. He went for the collar in six at-bats and for the second time in his career struck out 5 times. It was obvious to anyone watching he couldn't differentiate a fastball from an off-speed pitch. (King George back in the day would have sent Tex to the eye dr. immediately.)

The Yankees put two on with two out in the 10th, but Teixeira swung and missed at strike three to end the inning. The Bomberless Bombers also stranded runners in scoring position in the 12th and 14th.

Derek Jeter's 2-run home run in the 5th had put the Yankees on top of Ricky Romero 2-1, but the Yankees managed just eight hits on the day against the Jays staff. Alex Gonzalez (did YES HAVE to show his 2003 World Series home run off Jeff Weaver?) had tied the game up in the seventh off of Pettitte with his 12th home run of the year. The only other run allowed by the tall left-hander was a solo home run by Vernon Wells (his 10th).

The Yankees had a chance to break things open in the 7th when Francisco Cervelli opened the inning with a single and Brett Gardner followed with a walk. Kevin Russo's sac bunt forced the Blue Jays to bring the infield in, but Jeter hit a soft liner right to Hill at second base. Hill bobbled the ball before recording the putout and easily doubled a confused Cervelli off of third base to end the threat.