Blue Jays beat Yankees behind Burnett

Pitching in the shadow of the Beijing Olympics, A.J. Burnett was pure gold for the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday night.

Burnett was overpowering, striking out 13 batters in eight innings as the Blue Jays prevailed 2-1 over the visiting New York Yankees before a crowd of 37,221 at the Rogers Centre.

Burnett (16-9) surrendered just one run on five hits and one walk en route to his sixth straight win and seventh in his last eight starts.

The hard-throwing right-hander improved to 6-2 lifetime versus the Yankees, including 3-0 this season, and leads the American League with 178 strikeouts.

"I knew I had a couple," quipped Burnett, whose 13 strikeouts were a season high.

"Everything was working, that is basically all you can say. We got ahead and everything else after that, kind of, took care of itself."   B.J. Ryan recorded the final three outs for his 24th save in 27 opportunities.

Ryan received defensive support from first baseman Lyle Overbay, who chased down Alex Rodriguez's bloop single in foul territory and threw him out at second.

"I cannot say enough about Lyle staying on it and making a great play," Ryan said.   Marco Scutaro broke a 1-1 deadlock in the bottom of the eighth inning, cashing Joe Inglett with a run-scoring double that should have been logged an error to Yankees centre-fielder Johnny Damon, who dropped the ball at the warning track.

"I just didn't get back far enough," Damon said. "I made myself have to jump [and] when you do that, your head shakes a bit."

Inglett scored all the way from first base on the miscue by Damon, who misplayed a similar fly ball off the bat of Alex Rios in the first inning.

"I couldn't believe I didn't come down with it," Damon said.

With the win, Toronto moved to within a game of third-place New York in the AL East Division, and remained 7 1/2 games behind the Boston Red Sox for the wild card.

Boston beat the Baltimore Orioles 7-2.

"It doesn't get any easier," Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston said. "You have got to play well ... otherwise, you can start thinking about next year."   Adam Lind homered for the Blue Jays (65-60), winners of three straight games and six of their last seven. 

Bobby Abreu had the lone run batted in for the Yankees (66-59).

Hideki Matsui was activated by the Yankees for the first time since being shelved June 22 with an injured left knee, and went 0-for-3 with a strikeout as the designated hitter.

"Our plan is to play him every day," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "Obviously, we will evaluate him every day and see how his knee is holding up."

Jose Veras (3-2) suffered the loss in relief of New York starter Darrell Rasner, who permitted one run on five hits and one walk with three strikeouts.

Burnett baffles A-Rod, Giambi

Abreu staked the Yankees to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning with an RBI double to left field that scored Damon, who had walked to open the contest.

But Burnett prevented further damage by striking Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi to end the inning.

Abreu lined a double off the base of the centre-field wall to lead off the fourth inning, but Burnett whiffed Rodriguez and Giambi and retired Xavier Nady on a grounder to nullify the threat.

In the sixth, Derek Jeter reached safely on an infield single, but Burnett retired Abreu on a lineout to left and struck out Rodriguez and Giambi.

Burnett closed out the seventh inning by striking out Ivan (Pudge) Rodriguez on strikes, with Nady in scoring position.

Rasner, meantime, limited the Blue Jays to a pair of harmless singles, by Overbay and Vernon Wells, until Lind hit a towering home run to right field to knot it 1-1 in the bottom of the seventh inning.

It was Lind's third homer in as many games and ninth of the season.