Rasner, Yankees back in the winning column

Newsday and Appeal Staff Report

TORONTO -- The offensive awakening the New York Yankees had been waiting for finally occurred Saturday and 1999 Carson High School graduate Darrell Rasner was finally the beneficiary.

The Yankees came back from an early three-run deficit to beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 9-4, with Alex Rodriguez passing Yankees great Mickey Mantle and taking over the 13th spot on the career home run list with No. 537. Derek Jeter hit career home run No. 200 to right field to lead off the game. Both drove in three runs, as did rookie Brett Gardner, who scored twice and reached base four times in the No. 9 spot.

"He passed a great Yankee," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said of Rodriguez, who lined a shot high off the left-field foul pole off left-hander Brian Tallet in the fourth inning to close out the scoring. "To be tied with Mickey Mantle is special, but to go beyond Mickey Mantle is even more special."

Passing Mantle was a big deal for Rodriguez, who said: "These names, they're special names. You've got to take a step back and appreciate that moment."

Saturday's game at Rogers Centre was the polar opposite of Friday's game, in which Roy Halladay turned in a crisp two-hit shutout in a 5-0 Toronto victory. This was a sloppy affair, with two errors committed by each team that made six of the 13 runs unearned.

Rasner (5-7) got a win for only the second time in his last nine starts, overcoming a four-run first inning.

The Yankees helped him by scoring in each of the first four innings. Immediately after the Blue Jays went ahead 4-1 in the first, the Yankees scored four runs of their own in the second. Gardner contributed an RBI single and Rodriguez a two-out, two-run single to give the Yankees the lead for good at 5-4. In the third, Gardner added a two-out, two-run single and scored on Jeter's single to make it 8-4.

The Yankees had scored only 20 runs in their previous eight games, and with the exception of an 18-7 victory over the Texas Rangers on July 2, they had scored 27 runs in 12 games. They have not hit well with men in scoring position this season but were 4-for-10 in such spots Saturday.

"I tip my hat to the offense," Rasner said. "I got a second chance and some life."

Only three of the four runs Rasner allowed in the first inning were earned, as after Marco Scutaro singled home Inglett, Chad Moeller was charged with catcher's interference, allowing Lyle Overbay to reach base. Rasner sandwiched strikeouts of Matt Stairs and Scott Rolen around a walk to Brad Wilkerson, but Adam Lind lined a drive to right-center that got by Bobby Abreu for a three-run triple.

But Rasner " who had lost seven of eight decisions after getting off to a 3-0 start " got better as the game went on. He allowed seven hits and a walk in five innings, striking out six.

He battled through four more innings of shutout ball. The most telling statistic of the afternoon was that Rasner managed to limit the Jays to just two hits in 13 opportunities with runners in scoring position.

"Everything felt good," Rasner said. "The fastball was down in the zone, where I needed it to be, and everything else worked off of that."

"I thought he pitched fairly decent," Girardi said. "He really buckled down. ... He didn't walk people, and he allowed our defenders to make plays. It just shows you he made the pitches when he had to."

Blue Jays starter Jesse Litsch (8-6) was victimized by his defense, allowing two unearned runs in the second because of an error by Scutaro on what appeared to be a double-play ball and three unearned runs in the third because of a throwing error charged to shortstop John McDonald. Litsch, who began the season 7-1, allowed eight runs, seven hits and a walk in 2 2/3 innings.