Yankees 5, Blue Jays 4
Yankees 5, Blue Jays 4: Travis Hafner had a three-home run and added a tiebreaking triple in support of starter CC Sabathia as host New York upended Toronto for the third straight day.
Sabathia (4-2) scattered four runs (three earned) on nine hits over eight innings, improving to 14-4 lifetime against Toronto. Joba Chamberlain worked around a pair of ninth-inning hits to record his first save as manager Joe Girardi opted to rest regular closer Mariano Rivera, who had pitched in three of the previous four games.
Reliever Esmil Rogers (1-2) absorbed the loss while Jose Bautista and Brett Lawrie went deep for the Blue Jays, who fell for the ninth time in 12 games.
Bautista's solo homer to left field helped Toronto to an early 3-0 lead, but Hafner answered in the fourth with a three-run blast over the wall in right-center off Blue Jays starter J.A. Happ. Lawrie responded for Toronto in the sixth, sending a Sabathia pitch into the right-field seats for his second opposite-field homer in three games.
The Yankees drew even in the seventh off Rogers, as Robinson Cano hit a one-out double and came around to score on a Vernon Wells single. Brett Cecil came on for Toronto and promptly surrendered Hafner's go-ahead triple, which deflected off Rajai Davis' glove in front of the center-field wall.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Happ surrendered three runs on eight hits over six innings. ... Yankees RF Ichiro Suzuki finished 2-for-4 to increase his career major-league hit total to 2,625. ... Wells, a former Blue Jay, is hitting 11-for-25 with three home runs and six RBIs in six games against Toronto this season.