Yankees Sleepwalk to Tie Clinch

It seemed like the Yankee veterans were in too much of a hurry yesterday to see their rookie counterparts in Wizard of Oz regalia as part of this year's freshman hazing. The Yankees let rookie Jesse Litsch manhandle them in a 4-1 loss to the Blue Jays. They did manage to clinch a tie for the Wild Card last night though, when the barely breathing Detroit Tigers were blanked by the Minnesota Twins, 2-0.

Andy Pettitte felt his stuff was good, but the Blue Jays battled him hard, scoring 3 runs in the 2nd inning to take control of the game. Pettitte retired Frank Thomas to start the inning, but allowed a single to Aaron Hill and walked Greg Zaun. Curtis Thigpen doubled in the game's 1st run and Hector Luna followed with an RBI ground out. John McDonald's double to deep center made it a 3-0 game, before Pettitte finally retired Reed Johnson to end the inning.

The Blue Jays added an insurance tally the next inning when Derek Jeter couldn't handle Hill's potential inning ending ground ball. The Yankees got their only in the 6th when Jeter doubled and came around on ground outs by Bobby Abreu and Alex Rodriguez. It was A-Rod's 147th RBI of the season.

Litsch left after 7.2 innings of 5 hit ball. Casey Janssen came on for the final 4 outs to record his 6th save of the season.

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Russ Ohlendorf continues to put himself into post-season consideration, especially with Ian Kennedy not likely to pitch this week. Ohlendorf's scoreless inning yesterday lowered his ERA to 2.45 and gave him 5 strikeouts in 2.2 innings.

Derek Jeter's double extended his hitting streak to 11 games.