Blue Jays end Yankees' winning streak with 3-2 victory

New York Yankees starting pitcher Chien-Ming Wang throws a pitch to the Toronto Blue Jays in the second inning of their American League baseball game at Yankee Stadium in New York, July 19, 2007.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Toronto Blue Jays rallied for three seventh-inning runs off Chien-Ming Wang and ended the New York Yankees' five-game winning streak with a 3-2 victory in American League play on Thursday.

New York led 2-0 behind Wang's pitching until the seventh and looked set for a four-game series sweep, but the Blue Jays had four of their seven hits in the seventh inning to take the lead.

Wang said the loss was a tough one for the Yankees, who are facing an uphill battle to try to catch the Boston Red Sox in the AL East.

"Of course, I'm disappointed," Wang told reporters. "If I don't give up the three runs, we would have won the game."

New York manager Joe Torre felt Wang pitched well and laid the blame on his team's batting.

"We just didn't do a whole lot offensively today," Torre said.

Matt Stairs led off the seventh with a double and Vernon Wells followed with an infield single. The runners moved up a base on Troy Glaus's fly-out, and Stairs scored on an infielder groundout by Frank Thomas.

Aaron Hill's triple then tied the game and he scored the winning run on Gregg Zaun's single to complete the scoring.

Dustin McGowan (6-5) went seven innings for the win, allowing two runs on four hits with three strikeouts and three walks.

Casey Janssen pitched a perfect eighth and Jeremy Accardo worked the ninth for his 14th save in 17 chances.

Wells and Hill both had two hits for the Blue Jays, who split four games in Boston before the series, ending up 3-5 on their road trip to their closest AL East rivals.

"We're disappointed going 3-5, there's no question," Toronto manager John Gibbons said. "But I thought today's game was huge."

Wang (10-5) took the loss, allowing three runs on seven hits with three strikeouts over 7 1/3 innings.

Bobby Abreu's two-run double in the first inning accounted for the New York runs.

* The AL West leading Los Angeles Angels avoided a three-game series sweep by blanking the lowly Tampa Bay Devil Rays 3-0. Kelvim Escobar (11-3) pitched 7 2/3 innings for his career-best fifth straight decision.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Minnesota Twins 4-3 in 10 innings on Brandon Inge's RBI double, completing a three-game sweep of the defending AL Central champions.

(Writing by Roger Lajoie in Toronto)