Blue Jays 2, Yankees 0
NEW YORK -- Third baseman Josh Donaldson and right fielder Jose Bautista homered as the Toronto Blue Jays completed their first sweep at Yankee Stadium in over 12 years with a 2-0 victory over the New York Yankees on Sunday afternoon.
Right-hander Marco Estrada (10-6) made the home runs stand up, allowing three singles in 6 1/3 innings, doing so after left-hander David Price allowed three hits in seven innings in Saturday's 6-0 win. Three relievers combined on 2 2/3 scoreless innings and when Roberto Osuna recorded his 10th save in 11 opportunities, the Blue Jays had their ninth sweep of any series in New York but first since May 22-25, 2003, when Roy Halladay, Kelvim Escobar, Cory Lidle and Doug Davis were the winning pitchers.
The Blue Jays (61-52) ran their winning streak to eight games, won for the 11th time in 12 games and inched to within 1 1/2 games of the Yankees (61-49) with 10 games remaining in the season series.
Following the leads of the first two games, Toronto's latest win was decided with power.
Donaldson struck again early, hitting his 31st home run on the seventh pitch of the game from right-hander Masahiro Tanaka (8-5). Donaldson drove a first-pitch fastball into the Yankees bullpen beyond the right-center field wall and it was his fourth straight home run in the first inning and ninth overall in the opening inning.
After hitting the tiebreaking home run in the 10th on Friday off rookie Branden Pinder, Bautista hit his 26th home run with one out in the fourth. He waited slightly longer than Donaldson in his at-bat, driving a 1-0 fastball to left field off an advertisement in front of the second deck.
Tanaka allowed two runs and three hits in six innings as New York lost for the fourth time in five games and has lost 5 1/2 games off its lead since July 27. It is the first time the Yankees have held less than a two-game lead since July 7.
The Yankees have four runs since Tuesday's 13-3 win over the Boston Red Sox and went scoreless over the final 26 innings after first baseman Mark Teixeira homered off R.A. Dickey in the second inning Friday.
NOTES: INF Cliff Pennington was added to Toronto's roster Sunday, becoming the sixth player to join the team in a trade since July 27. Pennington was obtained during Saturday's game and is expected to see time at second base and occasionally shortstop. To get Pennington on the roster, Toronto optioned INF Munenori Kawasaki to Triple-A Buffalo. ... Yankee relievers have thrown the most innings (45 2/3) in the American League since the All-Star break. New York used its bullpen for at least three innings in nine straight games, the longest streak since doing so for 12 straight games Sept. 10-23, 2008. ... Toronto DH/1B Edwin Encarnacion had the day off from starting lineup. Encarnacion appeared to injure his hand/finger on a swing in the eighth inning Saturday but got a hit a few pitches later.