Williams Has Yankees Feeling Good Again

The New York Yankees have declared the slump over.

Bernie Williams hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the sixth inning as the Yankees rallied for the second consecutive night, beating the Toronto Blue Jays, 6-4, Wednesday night.

“We’re back on track,” Yankee Manager Joe Torre said.

The Yankees, who maintained a 3 1/2-game lead over Boston in the American League East, won their second straight after losing four in a row. New York heads to Cleveland for a four-game series with the AL Central-leading Indians.

“The team has been struggling, and I’ve been struggling. I’ve been pressing too hard, so to have a couple of wins like this it definitely gives us a boost going into Cleveland,” Williams said.

Williams, who had one homer in 26 games before hitting a game-tying grand slam in the eighth inning Tuesday, broke a 4-4 tie in the sixth with his 24th homer.

“I’ll try to feed off what I’ve done, and try to keep it going,” Williams said. “We certainly have a positive attitude coming off yesterday’s game.”

Andy Pettitte (13-11) allowed four runs and eight hits in eight innings to improve to 3-0 against Toronto this season.

Mariano Rivera pitched the ninth for his 41st save. Rivera walked Homer Bush leading off the ninth, the second time in his last three games he walked his first batter. Rivera had gone 81 appearances since July 9, 1998, without walking his first batter.

Rivera hasn’t allowed a run in his last 20 appearances, a span of 22 1/3 innings.

The Blue Jays took a 4-1 lead in the fourth on Carlos Delgado’s 44th homer, Jose Cruz’s RBI double and a two-run double by Bush.

But the Yankees came right back and tied it in the fifth on Tino Martinez’s solo homer, his 25th, Rickey Ledee’s RBI triple, and Joe Girardi’s run-scoring single under the glove of shortstop Tony Batista.

Pat Hentgen (10-11) gave up six runs--five earned--and seven hits in 5 2/3 innings.