TORONTO -- Rajai Davis homered and Toronto's bullpen held off the New York Yankees with six shutout innings in relief of injured starter Ricky Romero as the Blue Jays came back for a 3-2 victory Saturday at Rogers Centre.
The Yankees' magic number for locking up a post-season berth remained at two and their lead over second-place Baltimore in the American League East race was trimmed to just a half-game. The Orioles were home to the Boston Red Sox on Saturday night.
Yunel Escobar trotted home from third base with the go-ahead run in the sixth inning when Adeiny Hechavarria hit a two-out double off the right-field wall.
The rally was snuffed on a baserunning error by Yan Gomes, who thought about scoring from first base. He ran too far past third and was tagged out as he tried to get back to the bag.
The Blue Jays' bullpen held the lead from there with Casey Janssen picking up the final three outs for his 21st save. New York (91-67) needs a win in Sunday's series finale to salvage a split of the four-game set.
Romero was pulled from the game after the third inning due to discomfort in his left knee.
The left-hander appeared to hurt himself on a pitch to Andruw Jones that was well outside. Romero hopped a few times on the mound and appeared to favour his left side.
The precautionary move was made with the Yankees holding a 2-1 lead. Romero was replaced by Canadian right-hander Shawn Hill (1-0), who didn't allow a hit over three innings.
Blue Jays manager John Farrell came out to the mound with a team trainer to talk with Romero, who threw a few warmup pitches before deciding to stay in the game.
It has been a very disappointing season for Romero, who entered play with a 9-14 record and 5.76 earned-run average. He recorded a win over Baltimore earlier in the week that halted a 13-game losing streak over 15 starts that dated back to June 22.
Romero started off slowly on a chilly, overcast afternoon by loading the bases with nobody out in the first inning. The Yankees scored both of their runs in the frame on sacrifice flies.
Davis answered in the bottom half of the frame with a solo shot that barely cleared the wall in left field. It was his eighth home run of the season.
Romero loaded the bases again in the third before recording an out. He got out of the jam with a flyout, strikeout and lineout.
Toronto (70-88) scratched out a run in the fifth inning to tie the game at two. Jeff Mathis opened with a double and moved to third on a grounder by Hechavarria. Mathis scored on an infield single by the speedy Davis.
Romero allowed two earned runs, six hits and two walks in his final start of the season. He had three strikeouts and threw 38 of his 63 pitches for strikes.
Yankees starter Andy Pettitte (5-4) worked five-plus innings and gave up three earned runs and five hits. He walked three batters and had four strikeouts.
Notes: Henderson Alvarez (9-14) will get the start for Toronto on Sunday. The Yankees will counter with Phil Hughes (16-13). ... The Blue Jays will close out the regular season with a three-game series against the Minnesota Twins next week. ... Announced attendance was 36,139, which pushed the season total at Rogers Centre past the two-million mark at 2,022,187. The game took two hours 54 minutes to play.
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