Toronto Blue Jays Aaron Hill and Vernon Wells (right) congratulate each other following the Jays victory over the New York Yankees in AL action in Toronto on Wednesday August 25, 2010. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank GunnFRANK GUNN/The Canadian Press
For Aaron Hill this season, it has been all about trying to find where he is most comfortable in Toronto Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston's batting order.
Hitting out of the No. 2 slot at the beginning of the season wasn't exactly fruitful and the second baseman was soon relegated to batting sixth, where things went from bad to worse.
A major-league all-star a year ago when he stroked 36 home runs and batted .286, Hill has struggled mightily this season to prevent his batting average from slipping south of .200.
When he came to the ballpark to prepare for the rubber game against the New York Yankees at Rogers Centre on Wednesday night, Hill found that he had fallen a little lower in Gaston's pecking order, hitting out of the eighth spot.
"I'm just trying to get him somewhere comfortable," Gaston said. "He's struggling real bad."
Hill put an end to the how-low-can-he-go riff, at least for the time being, stroking a home run in the fifth inning that helped lift the Blue Jays (66-60) to an efficient 6-3 victory over the Yankees (78-49) before a joyful gathering of 31,449.
For Hill, the home run was his 19th of the season and halted an ugly 0-for-20 slide at the plate.
The victory allowed Toronto to earn a satisfying 2-1 series victory over a New York team that is involved in a tight battle for first place in the American League East.
And for a team whose playoff hopes have dried up over the past several weeks, the Blue Jays have played he Yankees especially tough. The victory Wednesday was their seventh in 12 meetings this season.
Vernon Wells was another Blue Jays player who was struggling a bit at the plate of late, not having struck a home run since Aug. 3 against the Yankees in New York.
After tripling home Toronto's first run in the first inning, Wells unloaded against Phil Hughes, New York's starting pitcher who was looking for his 16th win of the season, for a two-run home run shot in the third.
For Wells, it was home run No. 23 on the season and provided the Blue Jays with a 4-0 lead they did not relinquish.
Wells went 3-for-4 in the game and drove in four of the Toronto runs, coming within a double of hitting for the cycle.
The primary beneficiary to all the offensive largesse was Brett Cecil, the Blue Jays starting pitcher, who steamrolled his way through a potent Yankees batting order to pick up the win and improve his record to 11-6 on the season.
Cecil has been more overpowering before, but he had more than enough to keep the New York hitters off-balance, allowing both New York runs off seven hits scattered over eight innings while striking out five.
He allowed both the New York runs in the fourth inning when Marcus Thames stroked a two-run home run shot to left-centre.
Cecil's record is even more impressive considering most of his wins have come at the expense of teams in the AL East, generally regarded as baseball's best.
Including the win Wednesday, Cecil raised his record to 7-1 against East opponents with a 2.14 earned run average. Against the Yankees this season, Cecil is 2-0 in three starts with a miserly 1.64 ERA.
Jason Frasor entered the game in the ninth inning and picked up two quick outs before he issued consecutive walks to Austin Kearns and Brett Gardner.
That was enough for Gaston, who called on closer Kevin Gregg, who promptly surrendered a run-scoring single to Eduardo Nunez, bringing the tying run to the plate in Derek Jeter.
Jeter had a great 10-pitch at-bat, fouling off three consecutive fastballs after working the count to 3-2 before getting hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Gregg finally ended the suspense by getting Curtis Granderson to fly out to centre.