Yanks Launch Four Home Runs, Beat Blue Jays 7-1

Let me start this recap off by saying this: three major events happened in this game -- two were good for the New York Yankees, and one was almost season altering.

Even after Robinson Cano was forced to leave the game in the first inning after taking fastball from J.A. Happ off his left hand, the Yankees still went on to blowout the Toronto Blue Jays 7-1, Tuesday night at the Rogers Center.

After Brett Gardner lead off the game with a double to right field, he advanced to third on a wild pitch, then scored on an RBI single by Derek Jeter , who was playing in his second game since coming off the DL.

Immediately after, Cano was hit by a 2-2 fastball from Happ -- the same pitcher that fractured Curtis Granderson's forearm in Spring Training -- and after a lengthy discussion, he stayed in the game, but packed his things and left after Alfonso Soriano jacked a three-runs homerun of Happ, making a 4-0 game in the 1st.

The Yankees originally announced that Cano had been taken to the hospital with a left hand contusion, then finally gave up the x-ray results, saying that everything came back negative, and Cano is listed as day to day.

"I was [scared] right away -- I was hurt," Cano said. "I was pretty concerned. [First-base coach] Mick [Kelleher] asked me at first base if I thought it was broken; it was close to the bone. Maybe it missed the bone by an inch. Thank God it was nothing worse."

Later in the third, Soriano was back at it again, blasting a solo homerun to left field off Happ -- his second homerun of the game, and the 400th of his career -- extending the Yankees' lead to 5-0.

"It's good," Soriano said. "When I retire, I can think about what I did in the game. I'm very proud. The talent that I've got, God gave it to me. I never think I'm going to hit 400 homers in the big leagues with my size, but I think I work hard and try to get better every day. That's what I've got."

Then Mark Reynolds and Alex Rodriguez decided to join in and continue the right-handed homerun trend, with each launching solo homeruns off Esmil Rogers, putting the Yanks up 7-0. A-Rod's bomb his 4th this season and No. 651 for his career.

The Yankees put seven runs on the board in support of Andy Pettitte, who was making his second straight start against the Blue Jays. Pettitte was at his best from the start, setting down the first six batters he faced before giving up a leadoff single to open the 3rd inning.

Pettitte tossed seven scoreless inning, permitting just five hits, while walking two and striking out three on 86 pitches. This outing was easily his best in quite some time. Obviously the Jays are not a very good baseball team, but Pettitte did a great job dominating, picking up his 10th win of the season.

"He was really good," manager Joe Girardi said. "He went through the lineup with not too many pitches the first time. He got some big outs when he had to. I thought he was sharp."

Adam Warren finished up the game, giving up one run on five hits in two inning, closing out the 9th inning to seal up the Yanks 7-1 victory. The win is their 13th against the Jays this season.

"We need these wins like oxygen," Rodriguez said. "One thing this team is going to do is leave it all out there for the next 30, 31 days; maximum effort."

As if the Yankees hadn't gone through enough with the Cano situation, they suffered another scare in the 8th inning when Eduardo Nunez when down going after a ground ball up the middle. His cleat appeared to get stuck on the Astro Turf, as he went down twisting his ankle.

After testing out the ankle for a few minutes, Nunez decided that he was good enough to stay in the game. He came up to bat in the 9th and lead-off with a single to center field. Eventually, Girardi decided to lift him from the game, replacing him with pinch-runner Lyle Overbay.

"It was a good win for us," Pettitte said. "We needed it after last night, that's for sure. We played great defense, and the guys scored some runs. It really let me settle in."

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