TORONTO — Derek Jeter made a colossal mental mistake in the middle of the game and Yangervis Solarte a costly throwing error to end it.
So, not long after the Blue Jays hung a 7-6 loss on the Yankees in front of 34,206 Tuesday night at Rogers Centre, Mark Teixeira put the desultory evening into very accurate words.
“It was sloppy on both sides,’’ said Teixeira, acknowledging the winners’ three errors. “That was an ugly game to lose. If I was a fan I should get my money back.’’
The Yankees’ fourth loss dropped them 3 ½ games behind the A.L. East-leading Blue Jays. After scoring four runs in the previous three games the Yankees dented home plate six times, but it wasn’t enough.
“We would have liked to have won,’’ said Jeter, whose homer in the sixth off Mark Buehrle provided the Yankees’ first run and helped erase a 6-0 deficit. “We have to play better.’’
With runners on first and second and two outs in the fifth inning and the Blue Jays leading, 3-0, David Phelps got Edwin Encarnacion to hit a grounder toward the hole at short that Jeter fielded cleanly. He looked at second, glanced at third where Solarte wasn’t on the bag and his throw to first was late.
With the bases loaded Colby Rasmus drove a misplaced fastball off the right-field wall as two runs scored. When Rasmus got hung up between first and second Jeter attempted to catch him running back to first but didn’t as Encarnacion scored.
“I should have known that Tex was more to the hole and [Jose] Reyes had a big lead,’’ Jeter said. “I looked at second base and couldn’t get him. Usually with a ball hit in the hole I will go to second or third. The next pitch cleared the bases. Obviously, if you go back, throw the ball to first. It was my mistake.’’
Manager Joe Girardi didn’t alibi for his shortstop.
“He is out if he just goes to first,” he said. “A lot of times they look to take the easier out, but he is out if he goes to first.’’
As for the rundown play, Jeter said, “He just beat me to the bag. I took a chance to beat him and he got back.’’
After squandering a scoring chance in the top of the ninth when Brett Gardner led off with a single but didn’t score, Adam Warren was tagged with the loss when Reyes opened the bottom of the inning with a double and scored when third baseman Solarte threw Melky Cabrera’s bunt away at first base.
“I tried to get the ball and [Warren] was coming, it was a tough play,’’ Solarte said.
“That hurt us and at times it has hurt us during the course of the season and something we need to do a better job of,’’ Girardi said of the leaky defense.
Phelps, who gave up a three-run homer to Dioner Navarro in the fourth on a hanging curveball, took the blame.
“That wasn’t the big play of the game,’’ Phelps said of Jeter’s mental mistake. “The big play of the game is I hung the next pitch [to Rasmus]. If I make a decent pitch, we get out of it.’’
Dellin Betances worked the seventh and eighth and didn’t allow a run, leaving the bases loaded in the eighth.
With one out in the seventh Mark Buehrle appeared to be on the way to snapping a nine-decision losing streak to the Yankees since he led, 6-1. The left-hander entered the game 1-10 with a 5.84 ERA in 17 starts against the Yankees and was 0-2 with a 5.04 in two games this season.
When the frame ended the Yankees had scored five runs (three earned) and Buehrle’s victory chance vanished into the night.