Yankees 7, Blue Jays 8: One That Got Away

There are losses...and then there are losses like these. The Yankees hadn't trailed in the game, there were two outs in the ninth inning with a two run cushion - everything should have ended up better than it did. Rafael Soriano gave up a three-run homer to Colby Rasmus and suddenly, the Yankees needed to play catch up to even force extra innings.

Derek Jeter led off the bottom of the ninth with a solo shot to tie the game, but it wouldn't be enough. The other Derek (Lowe) botched a throw to first in the 11th inning that allowed the runner to make it all the way to third before scoring on a ground out. That ended up being the difference in a game that felt pretty locked up a few innings before. David Phelps had problems keeping the ball in the park, giving up four runs in 6.1 innings, but was good enough aside from the two mistakes. The newest father on the team, David Robertson, managed one strikeout and allowed two hits in his inning of work. You can only imagine that his mind wasn't really on baseball tonight, so all things considered, it's kind of amazing he was available to pitch at all.

Before the game became frustrating, there were positive moments! Robinson Cano homered twice, hopefully breaking the slump he's been slugging through for a while now. He hadn't homered since the last series against the Blue Jays, so his two dingers tonight were welcome events. Nick Swisher kept up his hot hitting with a homer of his own. Anything hit to within a zip code of Rajai Davis on defense is a little scary after what he did in Toronto against Casey McGehee, but Swisher's hit was clearly out of his reach before it bounced back onto the field.

Want to hear about more injuries? Of course you don't, but it wouldn't be the 2012 Yankees if someone new wasn't hurt every other day. Mark Teixeira left the game with a calf strain, and was headed to the hospital for an MRI. Hopefully it's nothing that will cost him to miss too much time, but with Steve Pearce set to arrive in New York tomorrow, there's a good chance Tex will sit for at least a game or two.

Phil Hughes and Ricky Romero are set to square off in game two of this series tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. Texas helped the Yankees out by taking care of business against Tampa Bay tonight, but this team really needs to do themselves a favor and not blow golden opportunities like tonight to extend their lead. Tomorrow seems like a good time to get started on making up for this particularly ugly loss.

Update on Tex:

Bryan Hoch ‏@BryanHoch

Girardi said he doesn't expect Teixeira to play in the rest of this series; maybe not the next one either

Sweeny Murti ‏@YankeesWFAN

Teixeira said MRI revealed Grade 1 strain, left calf. Thinks he could be out anywhere from 1-2 weeks. Of course, it could be more too.