Yanks win third straight

Since last Tuesday the Yankees have hit three home runs. Two came from Francisco Cervelli and one was by Brett Gardner. That is all.

The Yanks increased their division lead to one game (with the Red Sox in action later today against the Rangers) via a 6-4 victory over the Blue Jays.

Bartolo Colon was kind of shaky but got the job done. Cy Colon lasted 6 1/3 innings and gave up four runs on seven hits with seven strikeouts to just one walk. He was either hit or miss today if that makes sense, and if you saw the game it does. It’s kind of weird he wasn’t dominant because he came in with great numbers in day games this season: 6-1 with a 1.88 ERA in eight such starts.

Boom Boom Boone (5-2) got the win by recording the final two outs in the seventh and D-Rob earned his first save since August 12, 2010 (third career) with a two-inning, one-hit performance. He fanned three in his first two-inning appearance since May 20 of last year. His season high in pitches is 35, which came on May 15 against Boston, and he tossed 34 today.

Robbie Cano had the go-ahead two-run double in the seventh. Trailing 4-3 with two outs, Grandy was hit by a pitch and A-Rod followed with a walk, Romero was then pulled in favor of Janssen before Cano doubled to center. Swish followed with an RBI single and that was all she wrote.

It’s now been three straight seasons of 40+ doubles (40) and back-to-back 100+ RBI (101) seasons for Robbie. He becomes only the third Yankee with five or more 40+ double seasons (Lou Gehrig, 7; Bob Meusel, 5). He knocked in just 12.6 percent of runners on base he had in 2009, 17 percent last year and 20 percent this year. In other words: he’s getting nice with RISP.

Cervelli, who had four at-bats and saw four pitches, went 2-for-4 with a two-run homer and was robbed of an extra-base hit in the eighth. Eddie Nunez drove in the other run.

Gardy, who set a career high with his sixth home run yesterday, stole a pair of bases (41) to become the first Yankee to record back-to-back 40-steal seasons since Alfonso Soriano did it in 2001 and 2002.

A-Rod (thumb) was in the lineup for the first time since August 28 and went 1-for-3 with a run and a walk. He was not in the cleanup spot (hitting third) for the first time since September 4, 2008. However, Tex (knee bruise) was still out of the lineup. Jeter didn’t play either, but I think that was because he has terrible numbers against Romero.

We also got to see Jesus Montero’s first MLB hit — a two-out single in the sixth. He’s now only 2,999 away from 3,000! #JM3K.

Grandy was the only starter not to get a hit, and he has been slumping lately. He’s just 2 for his last 19 and 5 for his last 31. I’ll let it slide with the season he’s having though.

CC will be going against Brett Cecil tomorrow in the finale of this set at 1:05.