Accardo Blows It in 9th

Yankees Stadium can be overwhelming for some. With all the it's history and the great fans, it tough to concentrate. Jeremy Accardo found that out last night the hard way.

After both teams scored runs in the 1st, it turned into a pitching duel between Roy Halladay and Andy Pettitte. The 2 pitchers both threw 6 scoreless innings after the shaky 1st, but then they each got pulled. So in the top of the 8th, Kyle Farnsworth came in for the Yanks.

He struggled giving up a single to Howie Clark, and then later letting him get to 2nd. Aaron Hill then drove him in to give the Jays the lead going into the final innings of the game. Scott Downs shut out the Yankees in the 8th, and Brian Bruney did the same to the Jays in the top of 9th.

So it was up to Jeremy Accardo to get the save and the win for the Jays. Miguel Cairo got to 2nd as a pinch-runner for Andy Phillips, but was thrown out by Alex Rios when he went home after a Melky Cabrera single. But the Jays weren't out of it yet, as on the at-bat, Cabrera went all the way to 3rd off a steal. Then the unthinkable happened. The craziest thing that could happen in the MLB happened. Accardo balked in the tying run! He stepped off the mound during his windup, and balked. But he then got the 2nd and 3rd out to send it to extras.

In the bottom of the 10th inning, Casey Janssen gave up a hit to the gap to Robinson Cano with a runner on 2nd. This ended up with the Yankees winning 3-2.

After the game, all of the talk was about Accardo's balk. ''I caught a cleat and was going to step off. Dumbest thing I've ever done,'' Accardo said. ''I kind of let things get out of hand. I gave up the leadoff single and I started pressing. ''It's a mental mistake. You can't get beat by those. If you're going to get beat, get beat by the hitter,'' he added.

''I've seen some crazy stuff. I can't remember seeing that,'' Halladay said. ''It can be a tough place to play, and things like that happen from time to time.''

The Yankees have turned it on the past few games, and are looking like they might give the Red Sox a run for their money. ''We just seem to be playing with something in mind right now,'' manager Joe Torre said. ''I think we're at a point now, because good things have happened when we've come after people, that when we lose a game like this it's going to be a surprise.''

Lost in the excitment of the end of the game was the pitching performances. Both Andy Pettitte and Roy Halladay put together amazing 7 inning starts giving up just a run each. Halladay gave up one run and five hits. He struck out six and walked three.

''It's nice to win a close game, that's for sure,'' Pettitte said. ''I knew it was going to be a tough game. Roy was throwing as good as I've ever seen him.''

Pettitte fanned a season-best seven over seven innings, allowing seven hits and three walks. It was the left-hander's sixth no-decision when allowing no more than two earned runs. 'To me, Andy made it all possible, because the only way you're going to have a chance against Halladay is to match him and he certainly did that,'' Torre said.

The Jays will try to win the next 2 games of this series to salvage a split.