TORONTO -- CC Sabathia has always given his team lots of innings and he's starting to get

into that groove for the New York Yankees. Good thing, too. With their middle relief a daily

question mark, going from Sabathia right to Mariano Rivera looks like the Yankees' best bet.

That was the way manager Joe Girardi played it Thursday night in Rogers Centre, getting eight

strong innings from Sabathia and then a save from Rivera in the ninth in a 3-2 win over the

Toronto Blue Jays.

There will be 16 more Yankees-Blue Jays games this season and fans can only hope they'll all

be as good as the one the crowd of 22,667 saw Thursday.

The Yankees won it on Hideki Matsui's solo home run in the top of the eighth, a line shot to

right-center off Toronto reliever Jesse Carlson. It gave the Yankees wins in the final two

games of the series after they were shut down Tuesday by Toronto ace Roy Halladay, and pulled

the Yanks back to .500 at 17-17.

Through all their injury and pitching troubles, the Yankees are just 4 games out in the

American League East and only three back in the loss column.

Matsui turned on a fastball at the knees from Carlson for his fourth homer and the first

allowed by the Toronto lefty.

Rivera made it stand with a 1-2-3 ninth. It was his 489th career save as the No. 2 closer on

the all-time list bears down on No. 500.

Sabathia was coming off a four-hit shutout in his last start Friday at Baltimore, a big

improvement from his 0-2 mark and 5.91 earned-run average in his previous three outings.

Sabathia battled through eight innings, allowing five hits and four walks. He also struck out

five. He threw 111 pitches (65 strikes), pushing past 110 for the third straight outing.

The 290-pound lefty retired 12 of the first 14 men he faced, with only Alex Rios reaching

in that stretch on a bloop single in the first and solo homer to right in the fourth.

Sabathia also got out of a huge jam in the Toronto seventh after Scott Rolen led off with a

double and went to third on Kevin Millar's fly ball to center. Rod Barajas was intentionally

walked but ex-Bison John McDonald, making his first start of the season, struck out when a

sacrifice fly was all that was needed to tie the game.

Sabathia walked Marco Scutaro on four pitches to load the bases but got Aaron Hill to bounce

into an inning-ending force-out at second on a sure-handed play by Alex Rodriguez at third.

Toronto had a 2-1 lead in the fifth and McDonald looked like he had driven in another Toronto

run with a single up the middle but Yankees center fielder Brett Gardner gunned down a sliding

Barajas at the plate, with rookie catcher Francisco Cervelli neatly applying the tag.

The Yankees tied the game in the top of the seventh at 2-2 on Derek Jeter's RBI single to

right-center off Jays reliever Jason Frasor.

Jeter was a surprise in the Yankees' lineup, as he had missed the first two games of the

series with an oblique strain and wasn't expected back until tonight's game against Minnesota

at the earliest.

"Seeing how he was [Wednesday], I wasn't convinced he'd be in the lineup," Girardi said

before the game. "I was more convinced we'd get Matsui back. But he came in, said he felt

good, hit in the cage and was smooth in there.

"I just had to know that he felt OK. When he took some BP, I wanted to make sure he didn't

have an issue. He felt comfortable."

Rodriguez, the subject of huge boos with each at-bat, went 0 for 5 but hit three rockets. One

came in the sixth, a liner that was stabbed at third by a diving Rolen. A-Rod is just 3 for 21

in six games since returning from hip surgery.

Yankees left fielder Johnny Damon doubled to right in the first off Toronto starter Brian

Tallet and scored the game's first run. He's cracked an extra-base hit in 10 straight games,

the first Yankee to do that since Paul O'Neill in 2001.

McDonald started at second base for Toronto for the first time this season. Aaron Hill served

as the designated hitter after fouling a ball off his foot in Wednesday's game.