Yankees 5, Blue Jays 4: Sabathia Throws Complete Game, and Yankees Rally in Ninth for Win

The offense did the rest. The Yankees scored two runs in the eighth and two with two outs in the ninth — the final one on Mark Teixeira’s single — to rally for a 5-4 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium.

With one out in the ninth and the Yankees trailing by a run, Jorge Posada electrified the crowd with a double to right-center off Frank Francisco. He was given a standing ovation as he was removed for pinch-runner Chris Dickerson, who moved to third on a groundout by Derek Jeter.

Curtis Granderson singled home Dickerson to tie the score, then stole second base before Teixeira singled through the infield, scoring him to make a winner out of Sabathia (5-3).

Teixeira may have been the hero, but he credited Posada’s double with getting things started, saying: “That’s huge. If that doesn’t happen, it may not have ended up the way it did.”

Posada, who is hitting .183, said the victory could be a sign of good things to come.

“It can turn it around, it really can,” he said. “It’s a good feeling in here when you win a game like that.”

Sabathia, who retired the final 16 Toronto batters, outlasted the Blue Jays’ Ricky Romero, who pitched seven dominant innings but was let down by his bullpen.

It was just Sabathia’s second complete game in Yankee Stadium since he joined the Yankees three seasons ago, though he pointed out that on a team with Mariano Rivera, complete games are hardly necessary.

“When you’ve got a closer like Mo, eight innings is really a complete game,” he said. “So I just have to go out there and be able to keep us in the game and give us a chance to win.”

Russell Martin got the Yankees off to a good start in the second with a home run to left field. It was his ninth homer of the season, breaking a tie for most home runs by a catcher this season with Toronto’s J. P. Arencibia.

Sabathia then faltered a bit, giving the run back in the top of the third. He allowed sharp singles by Rajai Davis, Yunel Escobar and Corey Patterson before striking out Jose Bautista on a checked swing to end the inning.

Things became messy for Sabathia in the top of the fourth as the Blue Jays scored three runs, but then both pitchers settled down into the duel that many anticipated, with Romero facing just one over the minimum number of batters during the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, and Sabathia pitching five perfect innings to close out the game.

In the bottom of the eighth, Granderson led off with a double. After a groundout by Teixeira and a strikeout by Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Cano doubled to score Granderson and came home on a single by Martin. The struggling Nick Swisher popped out to right field to end the threat.

On top of his gutsy performance, Sabathia seemingly found a way to deal with the red-hot Bautista, who hit his major-league-leading 19th home run Monday night. Bautista went 0 for 4, accounting for the final out in four innings.

“I just try to move it around; he’s a tough hitter,” Sabathia said of his success against Bautista. “I just try to throw strikes to all parts of the zone. It worked out tonight.”

It did not work out for Francisco, who blew his second save of the season

Toronto Manager John Farrell said: “To their credit, Posada jump-started their offense in the ninth with that double. We just couldn’t close it out.”

Soriano, who felt soreness in his injured elbow during his throwing session Monday, will be examined Wednesday by Dr. James Andrews in Pensacola, Fla. The Yankees are withholding the results of Soriano’s latest magnetic resonance imaging test until Andrews has had a chance to examine it.

The latest news seemed to concern Manager Joe Girardi.

“I really thought that we would have him getting ready to possibly go out on a rehab assignment shortly,” Girardi said before the game, “and that doesn’t seem to be the case now.”

INSIDE PITCH

Derek Jeter was the Yankees’ designated hitter. When asked before the game if it was a half-day for Jeter, Joe Girardi joked: “A half-day, yeah. Kids like half-days.” Jeter went 0 for 5 and remains 25 hits short of 3,000. ... Nick Swisher got the start in right field after two consecutive days off. Despite facing a left-hander, Swisher was unable to break out of his season-long slump, going 0 for 4 and lowering his batting average to .208. ... Reliever Dave Robertson will travel to his hometown, Tuscaloosa, Ala., after Wednesday’s game to survey hurricane damage and start a charity to raise money for recovery.

Tyler Kepner contributed reporting.

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Romney and Democrats Spar Over Auto Bailout

On the day that Chrysler wrote a check repaying $5.1 billion to the United States Treasury, President Obama and his Democratic allies claimed credit for saving a crucial industry in Michigan, a state that will be a critical battleground in the 2012 presidential election.

“Supporting the American auto industry required making some tough decisions,” Mr. Obama said in a statement, “but I was not willing to walk away from the workers at Chrysler and the communities that rely on this iconic American company.”

Democrats also sought to highlight past statements from Mr. Obama’s likely Republican rivals, who had criticized the president for a federal bailout that they said was unnecessary and wasteful.

The Democratic National Committee on Tuesday released a YouTube video highlighting a 2008 opinion article by Mitt Romney in The New York Times titled “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.” In the video, Mr. Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, is shown asserting, “If you write a check, they are going to go out of business.”

In 2009, Mr. Romney said Mr. Obama’s plans for rescuing the automobile industry were “tragic” and “a very sad circumstance for this country.”

A Romney spokesman said on Tuesday that the president’s plan was modeled after one Mr. Romney advocated in 2008.

“Mitt Romney had the idea first,” said Eric Fehrnstrom, a Romney spokesman, citing the Times opinion article. “You have to acknowledge that. He was advocating for a course of action that eventually the Obama administration adopted.”

But Mr. Fehrnstrom also accused Mr. Obama of wasting billions of dollars “propping up” the auto companies as part of the government’s restructuring plans for the industry.

“Mitt Romney argued that instead of a bailout, we should let the car companies go through a restructuring under the bankruptcy laws,” Mr. Fehrnstrom said.

Democratic officials in Washington and Michigan responded that Mr. Fehrnstrom’s assertion flew in the face of both the time line of events and the financial reality that was facing the companies at the time.

“Mitt Romney must think that the entire country has fallen into a state of amnesia if he believes he can get away with this revisionist history,” said Brad Woodhouse, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee. “The record is clear. Mitt Romney would have let G.M. and Chrysler go bankrupt without extending them a dime of federal assistance.”

Democratic officials noted that Chrysler and General Motors received the federal aid only after they entered bankruptcy — not before, as Mr. Romney’s spokesman asserted.

And they said the bankruptcy’s success depended on the federal money.

“Mitt Romney is doing circuslike contortions to get out from under the damaging words he uttered in 2008,” said Jennifer M. Granholm, a former Democratic governor of Michigan.

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