MLB

Yankees put Jays to sleep

TORONTO — Mark Teixeira glanced at Phil Hughes across the narrow clubhouse and offered the highest praise a teammate can deliver.

“We aren’t where we are without him,” Teixeira said of Hughes, who has solidified the Yankees’ bullpen since being dumped into it in early June because there was no room for him in the rotation.

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Of course, Hughes isn’t the only reason the Yankees are running away in the AL East and will be the favorites to win the World Series next month.

Derek Jeter and Teixeira are MVP candidates. Robinson Cano has been strong. Alex Rodriguez is producing runs. CC Sabathia is a serious Cy Young candidate and Mariano Rivera remains the best closer in baseball.

Yet Hughes has worked his way into that fraternity with outings like the one he delivered in yesterday’s 6-4 win over the lowly Blue Jays in front of an announced Rogers Centre crowd of 31,295.

Asked to protect a 5-4 lead with two outs and a runner on in the eighth, Hughes blew pinch-hitter Travis Snider away with a 1-2 heater that was clocked at 94 mph.

After the Yankees scored a ninth-inning run on Melky Cabrera’s (2-for-4) second RBI single — and with Rivera not available for a fourth game due to a cranky left groin — Hughes worked a perfect ninth when he fanned two. It was his third save of the season and career.

“It’s not very often you get to save games for the Yankees if your name isn’t Mariano Rivera,” said Hughes, whose numbers out of the pen are staggering. “We have depth in the bullpen to pick up the slack.”

In 33 relief outings, Hughes, a former and future starter, has allowed 22 hits, punched out 54, walked 10 and pitched to a 1.11 ERA.

The Yankees hitters, David Robertson, Brian Bruney and Hughes were the reasons Andy Pettitte won for the fifth straight time to improve to 13-6.

“I struggled all day,” said Pettitte, who gave up four runs, four hits and walked five in six innings after giving up one run and two hits in eight innings in his previous outing. “I couldn’t locate like I wanted to. I am glad I gave us a chance to win.”

Coupled with the Red Sox losing to the White Sox, the Yankees moved a season-high 81/2 games ahead of their blood rivals in the AL East.

Derek Jeter went 2-for-5 and is six hits away from tying Lou Gehrig’s all-time Yankees record of 2,721.

Cano, who went 3-for-4 and threw a runner out at the plate from right field, and Teixeira homered. Cabrera drove in two runs and Jorge Posada and Rodriguez drove in a run each.

Rivera could be back today. That would mean Hughes returns to the eighth-inning role he has dominated in.

“I guess it will be the end of my [closer] stint,” said Hughes, who has fanned six of the last seven hitters he has faced.

Pettitte gave up two runs in the fourth and two in the sixth, but did pitch out of a tight spot in the fifth when he got Vernon Wells to pop up a 3-0 pitch and broke Kevin Millar’s bat with an 0-2 pitch to strand two runners.

“In big situations, I got the ball where I wanted it,” Pettitte said. “The 3-0 pitch to Wells was a slider away. I got a few [pitches] where I wanted them but it was not as easy as it had been.”

george.king@nypost.com