Yanks blanked as Lind and Jays fly north of the border, 3-0

Alden Gonzales, mlb.com

TORONTO -- Four cities, two coasts, 10 games and six losses later, the Yankees can finally look forward to the prospect of going back home. Those are the thoughts that dominated their minds late Sunday afternoon, after being stifled by Brandon Morrow in a 3-0 loss to the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.

The Yanks are hoping an eight-game homestand that includes seven games against the hungry Rays and Red Sox is just what they need to kick-start them for the regular season's final stretch.

"I think we're going to be energized getting home, without question, because we've been gone for about a month," third baseman Alex Rodriguez said after the Yankees dropped two of three to the Blue Jays. "We love playing in front of our home fans, and we get a lot of energy from playing in our stadium."

Energy is an element the Yankees have seemed to lack in recent days. Going from Baltimore to Los Angeles to Seattle to Toronto in 11 days can do that to you. Their latest series saw some poor starting pitching (from CC Sabathia, Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia, respectively), a few head-scratching baserunning blunders and, most recently, a poor offensive showing against a man who had given up 15 runs in his last two starts.

The Yankees can take two positives from their 10-game road swing, though:

1. With Sunday's loss, Mariano Rivera now has a very good opportunity to get record save No. 602 in front of his home fans.

2. Despite a sub-.500 trip, the Yankees actually gained ground in the standings, going from 2 1/2 up on the Red Sox on Sept. 8, to 4 1/2 up after Boston dropped three of four to the Rays at Fenway Park.

Their magic number to clinch a postseason spot is five, and it's seven to clinch the American League East title.

"I think we are fortunate," manager Joe Girardi said of gaining ground on the trip. "We have to go home and play better, there's no doubt. At times, we didn't swing the bats on this trip. Is it good pitching? Is it fatigue? I don't know. But I know our guys are a little worn down."

Morrow certainly wore them down on Sunday, and thus continued his mystifying dominance of New York.

The Blue Jays' right-hander came in with a 5.23 ERA on the year, and a 12.10 ERA in his last 9 2/3 innings, but hurled eight scoreless frames against a lineup that was missing Mark Teixeira, Curtis Granderson and Derek Jeter. Morrow gave up just four hits, walked one, retired 12 straight batters at one point and struck out eight overall.

The 27-year-old now has a 1.74 ERA in three starts against the Yankees this season.

"Against us, he always seems to have electric stuff, and he was able to pitch ahead, and with the offspeed stuff and the slider that he has, the slider was so good he didn't even use his changeup," outfielder Brett Gardner said. "He got the best of us."

That slider Gardner referred to was actually a new, hybrid cutter Morrow began throwing in his last start against the Red Sox. It was a pitch he relied on rather heavily Sunday. It's sort of a tighter, harder slider Morrow used early in counts, before going to the slower breaking ball to finish hitters off.

Whatever it was, it worked.

"I went out very aggressive," Morrow said. "I was very aggressive in my bullpen [session] and warming up, and I just said I'm going to give everything I have pretty much on every pitch, go right at them and give it my best stuff."

Garcia, meanwhile, didn't have his best stuff, which is becoming a trend of late.

The 34-year-old admittedly prefers to pitch on short rest, but that's not possible with the Yankees' six-man rotation. On Sunday -- a full week since his last outing -- Garcia gave up three runs and failed to pitch into the sixth inning for the third straight game.

The veteran right-hander went 10 straight starts without allowing a home run, but has now given up seven in his last four. In the finale against the Blue Jays, Garcia was burned twice by Adam Lind on solo homers, then exited without being able to complete an ugly fifth inning -- one that saw him commit a throwing error and give up two singles, a walk and his third run on a deep sacrifice fly.

"Last few starts, I haven't been doing my job," he said. "I'm really frustrated about it, but that's part of the game. Sometimes you pitch good and sometimes you pitch bad."