TORONTO - Curtis Granderson hit his 40th home run of the season and Yankees closer Mariano Rivera pulled even with career saves leader Trevor Hoffman as New York came back to defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 7-6 on Saturday afternoon.
Rivera worked a 1-2-3 ninth inning for career save No. 601. Alex Rodriguez belted a three-run homer for the Yankees and reliever Aaron Laffey (3-2) picked up the victory.
Granderson hit a 2-2 pitch off reliever Carlos Villanueva (6-4) in the seventh inning to complete the comeback and help the Yankees (91-59) move four games up on second-place Boston in the American League East. The Yankees have a game in hand on the Red Sox, who were home to Tampa Bay later Saturday.
Mike McCoy drove in three runs for the Blue Jays, who fell to 76-75.
Rodriguez returned to the lineup after missing six games with a sprained left thumb. He hit his 16th homer of the season off starter Henderson Alvarez, who gave up nine hits and five earned runs over six innings.
It was the 629th home run of A-Rod's career, moving him one shy of Ken Griffey Jr. for fifth place on the all-time list.
The Jays touched up New York starter Bartolo Colon with four runs in the second inning and led 6-1 at the game's midway point. Colon allowed seven hits and six earned runs over four innings.
Toronto's Adam Lind, coming off a three-RBI performance in Friday's series opener, helped get the Jays on the board in the second inning.
He reached on a single, moved to third on a David Cooper single and scored on a double from Colby Rasmus. Adam Loewen of Surrey, B.C., walked and Jose Molina's ground-rule double scored Rasmus and moved Loewen to third. McCoy used a sacrifice bunt to get the Canadian home and make it a 4-0 game.
New York got on the board in the fourth inning. Granderson walked, moved to third on a Mark Teixeira double and came across when Loewen dropped a fly ball at the warning track in left field.
The Yankees blew a chance to pull closer due to a baserunning gaffe.
With one out, Rasmus made a fine running catch on a Nick Swisher drive to the gap in right-centre field. The double play was completed when Cano thought the ball was going to drop and ran past Teixeira, who had started to break for home but ran back to third base to tag up.
In the bottom half of the inning, Rasmus reached on a bunt and moved to second on a single by Brett Lawrie of Langley, B.C. Both runners scored on a McCoy double to right field, with the fleet-footed leadoff man moving to third on the throw home.
A decent crowd of 39,288 took in the game, which took two hours 50 minutes to play.
Notes: Eric Thames replaced Loewen in left field in the eighth inning and J.P. Arencibia took over from Molina behind the plate. ... Brandon Morrow (9-11, 5.23 ERA) will get the start in the series finale Sunday against New York's Freddy Garcia (11-7, 3.71). ... Jose Bautista entered play leading the major leagues in home runs (42), walks (121), on-base percentage (.449) and slugging percentage (.629). ... This series is the final stop of a four-city, 10-game road trip for the Yankees. ... Toronto opens a four-game series against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on Monday. ... Defence Minister Peter MacKay was in attendance.
