NEW YORK -- Ricky Romero baffled the suddenly slumping New York Yankees for the second time this season, and the free-swinging Toronto Blue Jays belted four more home runs in an 8-2 romp Tuesday night.
Alex Rodriguez failed to hit homer No. 600 for the 12th consecutive game, extending the longest stretch before reaching the milestone of the six players to have done it. New York's third baseman went 0 for 3 with a strikeout, and is 9 for 46 since his last home run on July 22.
The Yankees' could have used a big hit, too. They have lost three straight for the first time since June 16-19 and now find themselves peering over at Tampa Bay atop the AL East.
Romero (9-7) worked quickly and efficiently against baseball's highest-scoring team, allowing just two hits -- a two-run homer by Mark Teixeira in the first and an infield single by Marcus Thames in the fifth. He retired the final 15 batters in the complete game victory.
Travis Snider and Jose Bautista hit two-run homers, and Vernon Wells and Aaron Hill also went deep for the major league's top home-run hitting team. Bautista's homer was his ninth since the all-star break and his 33rd of the year, by far the most in the majors.
John Buck drove in two runs as the Blue Jays took advantage of a couple of hanging sinkers from Dustin Moseley (1-1) and every minor miscue by the New York defence.
Romero looked more like he did the first time he faced the Yankees this season than his most recent try. After pitching eight innings of two-run ball in an extra-inning win June 5 in Toronto, the left-hander was battered for eight runs in the third inning alone during an 11-3 loss at Yankee Stadium on July 3.
His only blemish this time came in the first inning, when he walked Derek Jeter and served up a fat 1-2 pitch to Teixeira, who sent it screaming into the seats in left field for his third homer in four games.
The Blue Jays got one back in the second when Buck drove in Adam Lind with a single through the right side, then scored three times with two outs in the fourth inning.
Moseley hit Hill near the left shoulder, and Buck made him pay for it with a double into the left-field corner. The Yankees might have had a chance to get Hill at the plate, but Jeter struggled to fetch the ball from his glove on the relay and his one-hop throw from the edge of the outfield was cut off by Teixeira without a play at the plate.
The seemingly minor mistake wound up costly when Snider homered into the bullpen in right field, staking the Blue Jays to a 4-2 lead. Wells cracked his solo shot in the eighth inning and Hill added his moments later, before Bautista's two-run shot in the ninth.
When the Blue Jays weren't beating up on Yankees pitching, they were doing their best to get A-Rod and the folks down the third-base line hopping.
Buck let his bat fly that direction in the second inning, and Edwin Encarnacion let go while striking out in the fourth. His bat had far more distance, though, clattering among the video cameras stationed beyond the visiting dugout about 90 feet away.
Notes: The Blue Jays have hit 167 home runs. ... The game took a tidy 2 hours, 21 minutes. ... Yankees LHP Andy Pettitte (groin strain) threw a half-side session before the game and could throw a full side session Friday. ... Former President Bill Clinton was on hand and nearly caught a foul ball from his seat outside a luxury box above the Blue Jays' dugout.
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