Jorge Posada’s RBI single in 12th inning gives Yankees 6-5 victory over Toronto Blue Jays

Posada’s 12th-inning single gives Yanks win

NEW YORK — Jorge Posada hit a game-ending RBI single in the 12th inning to lift the New York Yankees to a 6-5 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday.

With one out and runners on first and second, Posada lined a 1-1 pitch from Shawn Camp into center field. Alex Rodriguez scored without a play as the Yankees poured out of the dugout to congratulate Posada near first base.

The Yankees have won nine of 10 to move a season-best 14 games above .500 and pull within a game of AL East-leading Boston, which lost 3-2 to Seattle on Saturday. Brett Tomko (1-2) pitched a scoreless inning for the win.

Mark Teixeira got the winning rally started with a liner that caromed off the first-base bag and over Lyle Overbay for a double. Rodriguez received his second consecutive intentional walk before Teixeira was cut down at third on Robinson Cano’s sacrifice attempt.

Adam Lind hit a two-run homer and Alex Rios had three RBIs for Toronto, which has lost six of seven. Scott Rolen doubled in the fourth and is batting .407 (35 for 86) during his career-best 21-game hitting streak.

Posada, Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui homered for the Yankees, who lost starter Chien-Ming Wang to a strained right shoulder in the sixth inning. Wang, who missed time earlier this season with weakness in his hips, was scheduled to get an MRI on Saturday.

Posada finished with two hits after missing New York’s 4-2 win over the Blue Jays on Friday with a sore left thumb.

New York improved to 25-15 at the new Yankee Stadium, which has surrendered 135 homers already this season. The Yankees will reach the halfway point of their home slate on Sunday afternoon against the Blue Jays.

The Yankees led Roy Halladay and Toronto 3-2 before the Blue Jays rallied in the sixth. Marco Scutaro led off with a double and Lind hit a one-out drive over the wall in right for his 17th homer.

Wang then threw a ball to Rolen before manager Joe Girardi and assistant trainer Steve Donohue came out to the mound. After a short discussion, Wang headed for the Yankees’ dugout.

David Robertson came in and walked Rolen and Lyle Overbay. After Vernon Wells took a called third strike, Rios singled to center to give the Blue Jays a 5-3 lead.

Toronto’s three-run inning put Halladay in position to become the major leagues’ first 11-game winner but the right-hander never looked comfortable in his first start at New York’s cozy new ballpark.

Derek Jeter hit a leadoff single in the seventh and Damon followed with a drive that landed a few rows back in right, tying it at 5.

Halladay equaled a career worst by allowing three homers over seven innings in his second start since coming off the disabled list after being sidelined with a sore groin. He is 16-5 with a 2.90 ERA in 34 games, 31 starts, against the Yankees.

Before the game, Jeter helped Major League Baseball commemorate the 70th anniversary of Lou Gehrig’s luckiest man speech, reading the famous line from the icon’s stirring words during a video tribute.

The Yankees also placed a wreath of red, white and blue flowers by Gehrig’s plaque in Monument Park and made a $25,000 donation to Major League Baseball’s “4 (diamond) ALS” initiative, an effort to raise awareness of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis — the disease that forced Gehrig out of baseball in 1939 and took his life two years later.

NOTES: New York owner George Steinbrenner turned 79. Steinbrenner has attended few games since becoming increasingly frail in recent years. … Girardi said Rodriguez could get a day off Sunday. … Rolen has the longest active streak in the majors.

(This version CORRECTS Yankees 6, Blue Jays 5, 12 innings. SUBS 10th graf to correct to Steve Donohue sted Gene Monahan going to mound with Girardi)