Damon's Missed Catch Costs Yankees Game

The New York Yankees lost a rough game to the Toronto Blue Jays 2-1 on Tuesday night.

Darrell Rasner took the ball for the Yankees. Rasner was good, as he threw 6.2 innings, gave up one run on three hits, walked one, and struck out three.

A.J. Burnett went for Toronto and was spectacular. Burnett tossed 8 innings, gave up one run on five hits, walked one, and set a season-high with 13 strikeouts.

The Yankees got on the board in the top of the first inning. Bobby Abreu doubled to score Johnny Damon, and give the Bombers a quick 1-0 lead.

Rasner and the Yankees held the Jays down until the bottom of the seventh. Adam Lind rocketed a home run off Rasner, his ninth of the year, to knot the game at one.

Damon made a critical mistake in the bottom of the eighth. With two outs and Joe Inglett on first base, Marco Scutaro hit a long, fly ball to center field. Damon appeared to have a beat on it, but dropped the ball. Inglett scored all the way from first, and put the Jays up 2-1.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Yankees made a base running mistake. Alex Rodriguez hit a blooper to right field. He tried to be aggressive and stretch it into a double, but Lyle Overbay made a fine play to nail Rodriguez at second base.

B.J. Ryan got Jason Giambi out swinging, and got Xavier Nady to pop out to end the game and give the Blue Jays a win.

Burnett gets the win and moves up to 16-9.

Veras took the loss, and is now 3-2.

Ryan nailed down his 24th save this year.

Damon missed two catches in this game, one in the bottom of the first inning, and of course the missed catch that cost the Yankees the game in the eighth inning.

The Yankees activated Hideki Matsui tonight, his first game since late June. Matsui went 0-3 with a strikeout as the designated hitter, and the Yankees knew before the game he would not be at 100 percent.

Tomorrow night at 7:07 ET the Yankees and Blue Jays will go at it in game two of the three game series.

Andy Pettitte (12-9, 4.30 ERA) will be up against David Purcey (2-3, 5.93 ERA) in a battle of lefties.