The New York Yankees are beginning to resemble the team everyone became familiar with for the past decade. Alex Rodriguez hit a double in the seventh inning to ignite the Yankees to beat the Toronto Blue Jays 6-1 on Wednesday night for their fifth straight win.

Roger Clemens kept New York close with a magnificent display of pitching , and Andy Phillips provided yet again the clutch hit as the Yankees (48-44) moved a season-high four games above .500.

The 52,147 Yankees fans were 100% behind the team especially after sensing the momentum built up by Derek Jeter and Bobby Abreu’s rally. Excited for a second-half comeback the crowd chanted "MVP! MVP!" for Rodriguez as he stood at second base.

Alex Rios had a triple and three more hits, but struck out against Rivera with runners at the corners in the eighth inning.

Clemens allowed a season-high 9 hits, struck out 3 and walked one. He threw 63 of his 99 pitches for strikes.

This fifth consecutive victory moved the Yankees within seven games of the division-leading Red Sox and six back of the AL Wild Card lead. They also gave manager Joe Torre a nice 67th birthday present.

"We need to make something out of this run," manager Joe Torre said. "We let the other one [in June] get away from us a little bit. We need to minimize the bad stuff and try to get the most out of what we're doing."