Yankees 10, Blue Jays 4
Yankees 10, Blue Jays 4: Ichiro Suzuki tied a career high with five RBIs and Mark Teixeira homered as visiting New York earned its third straight victory.
The Yankees surged ahead early and Freddy Garcia (6-5) made the lead stand as New York remained 5 1/2 games ahead of Baltimore atop the American League East. The Orioles cruised past the Kansas City Royals 7-1 earlier Friday.
Garcia limited Toronto to two runs on five hits over six innings, striking out four without walking a batter. The right-hander has now strung together four straight quality starts while evening his career record against Toronto to 8-8.
The Yankees struck for two runs in the top of the second inning despite managing just one hit against Blue Jays starter Ricky Romero (8-9). With runners on first and second and nobody out, Jayson Nix's sacrifice bunt was fielded by Blue Jays catcher Jeff Mathis. His throw to third was off the mark, allowing Robinson Cano to score.
Ichiro doubled the advantage with a run-scoring groundout.
Kelly Johnson trimmed the deficit in the bottom half of the frame, drilling a Garcia offering into the first row of seats in right field for his 13th home run of the season.
After the teams traded runs, Teixeira's 22nd homer in the eighth - a mammoth shot into the upper deck in right field - restored the Yankees' two-run advantage. Two more runs came around to score on Ichiro's single to center, and New York tacked on four runs in the ninth highlighed by Ichiro's looping double to left that Blue Jays left fielder Rajai Davis misplayed.
Romero was charged with three runs - two earned - on four hits over seven strong innings, walking three and striking out two. The veteran left-hander is 0-8 in his last nine starts.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Ichiro last drove in five runs for Seattle in an Aug. 17, 2004 game against the Kansas City Royals. ... The win ended New York's three-game losing skid at the Rogers Centre. ... Yankees C Russell Martin had the most interesting at-bat of the night, hitting a high pop fly behind second base in the eighth inning that hit Johnson in the head and caromed into left field. Martin was awarded a single and advanced to second base on the throw. ... Blue Jays OF Colby Rasmus was pulled after eight innings with tightness in his groin.