Yankees sweep Jays in twinbill

NEW YORK—Ricky Romero was off to another shaky start with a lack of control before something clicked with his delivery.
Too bad Toronto’s offence didn’t follow suit.

Romero gave up one run in six innings. It wasn’t enough to end his 13-game losing streak, though.
Ichiro Suzuki drove in the go-ahead run with a single in the eighth inning to help the N.Y. Yankees complete a doubleheader sweep of the Blue Jays with a 2-1 win last night that ensured they remained atop the AL East, ahead of Baltimore, which beat Seattle 3-1 in 11 innings.
“Today I just did everything I worked on,” Romero noted.
“I had a good delivery,” he stressed. “That’s one of the things I battled myself all year.
“I had a fluid delivery.”
Andy Pettitte pitched five sparkling innings in his return from the disabled list and Suzuki made a difficult catch in the eighth inning in the opener to lead the Yankees to a 4-2 victory.
In the first game of the day-night doubleheader, Omar Vizquel moved ahead of Babe Ruth with an RBI double in the eighth inning.
The 45-year-old Vizquel had two hits to move into 41st place on the hits list with 2,874.
“I think when you get a hit to tie one of the best hitters in baseball, it’s an amazing feeling,” said Vizquel. “I mean, this guy has been a legend in the game for a long time, and to mention my name right next to his just makes me feel so little.
“I never thought, never, ever, in my career of baseball that’s been a long one, that I was gonna come close, to even compare my hits with the Babe.
“It’s just unbelievable,” he added. “It’s very emotional, especially here in New York, the house that he built.”
Vizquel had his second-straight multi-hit game and 10th of the season—good for second-best in big-league history for a player age 45 or older behind Julio Franco, who had 53 such games, according to information provided to the Yankees by the Elias Sports Bureau.
“When you start talking about the names that you’re mentioning, this is an outstanding career and he’s finishing up on a strong note,” said Blue Jays’ manager John Farrell.
The Jays were without shortstop Yunel Escobar, who began a three-game suspension for wearing eye black displaying an anti-gay slur written in Spanish during a game last weekend against Boston.
Toronto dropped to 66-81—guaranteeing it will not have a winning record this season.
With the score 1-1, Curtis Granderson was walked by Steve Delabar (4-3) to open the eighth. He moved up on Jayson Nix’s sacrifice and stole third.
With two outs, Suzuki guided an opposite field hit to left for the lead. Suzuki later stole two bases in the inning.
Suzuki went 7-for-8 in the two games and stole four of New York’s seven bases in the finale.
“It was just an unbelievable day,” said Yankees’ manager Joe Girardi.
Romero remained tied for the Blue Jays’ consecutive loss record with Tom Underwood, who dropped 13-straight in 1978-79.
Romero walked five to up his AL-leading total to 99. It was his third game in which he allowed one run and didn’t win, including two no-decisions.
“I just think that he had better overall action to all of his pitches,” Farrell noted.
“Even when you look at the five walks through six innings, they didn’t typically come back to haunt him where that’s been the case previous.”
Elsewhere in the AL, Minnesota beat Cleveland 6-4, Detroit downed Oakland 6-2, Tampa Bay bombed Boston 13-3, Kansas City blanked Chicago 3-0, and Texas upended L.A. 6-2.