Blue Jays Vs. Yankees: Andruw Jones Homers Twice, Yankees Take Series

Certain players shouldn’t wear certain uniforms. Duke Snider wore a Giants uniform for a year, and Juan Marichal wore a Dodgers uniform. Don’t bother looking for visual evidence -- the NSA and Hall of Fame collaborated to eliminate all traces -- but rest assured, it was pure baseball blasphemy on both counts.

But those are obvious examples of players looking weird in different colors. One that will sneak up on you is Andruw Jones in a Yankees uniform. It’s not like the Braves and Yankees were bitter rivals when Jones was with Atlanta, but that was his introduction to the world. He was a teenager hitting moon shots in the World Series, a who-is-this? wunderkind like few others in recent baseball history.

The corollary to the opening sentence up there: if the players play well in a weird uniform, everyone forgets in about five weeks. Andruw Jones had two home runs and four RBI on Wednesday, helping the New York Yankees to a 7-3 home victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.

The starting pitchers were points of interest too, though for different reasons. Freddy Garcia didn’t even get a major-league contract from the Yankees this offseason, but he’s been a mainstay in the patchwork rotation. He threw 6-1/3 innings, allowing three runs, and picking up the win. Garcia lowered his ERA to 3.26.

Sounds so easy: "picking up the win." As if it were a gum wrapper or something. Jo-Jo Reyes pitched poorly for the Blue Jays, allowing five earned runs in three innings. He got the loss. More interestingly, he didn’t get the win -- his 28th consecutive start without picking up a win, which ties him with Matt Keough and Cliff Curtis in the record books. What's wrong with you, Jo-Jo? It's right there! Just pick it up!

The game started with a lead-off triple from Yunel Escobar, but the Jays couldn’t bring him home -- an ominous start to the day. Curtis Granderson opened the scoring with an RBI double in the first inning, and Jones hit his first homer of the night in the second, a two-run shot to left-center.

Mark Teixeira extended the Yankees lead to 5-0 with a two-run homer of his own, and after the Jays were able to scratch a run across in the top of the sixth, Jones delivered his second two-run homer of the night. After the inning, Jones left the game for a defensive replacement. Dang, I’m old.

Also of note, Mariano Rivera pitched the 1,000th game of his career -- the first time a pitcher has done so for a single franchise.

The Blue Jays travel home to play the White Sox on Thursday, while the Yankees are off before heading up to Seattle for the weekend.