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NEW YORK -- While the Yankees provided some big thrills before finally falling to Toronto in a marathon 14-inning affair at Yankee Stadium on Friday night, there was discouraging news accumulating behind the scenes.

The Yankees and 54,151 of their faithful were on an emotional high when Jason Giambi's single to left field scored pinch-runner Branson Sardinha to complete a four-run ninth inning that tied Toronto 4-4 on a night Blue Jays starter Roy Halladay had been dominating for the first eight innings.

But Jays catcher Greg Zaun reached down with one out in the top of the 14th inning and drove a 1-0 fastball from Brian Bruney over the right-center field fence to break the tie and give Toronto a 5-4 victory.

The Yankees loss, coupled with Boston's win in Tampa, dropped New York to 2 1/2 games behind the Red Sox in the American League East. And Detroit was able to close to within 4 ½ games of the Yankees in the wild-card race with its win over Kansas City.

While the four-hour, forty-five minute game was in progress, the Yankees chose to scratch the veteran Hall of Fame-bound Roger Clemens from his scheduled start for Saturday afternoon. Clemens, who had replaced the rookie Ian Kennedy, now sidelined with a muscle strain in his back that doesn't appear to be serious, ``tweaked'' his left hamstring while working on his running program on the off day Thursday.

``Roger felt a little something while doing his exercises,'' Yankees manager Joe Torre said. ``He felt fine while he was throwing today, but we decided to push him back a little bit. It was pretty much our decision. We had guys rested because of the off day Thursday. We're just taking the safe route and giving him a couple of extra days.''

Clemens is now scheduled to pitch against Toronto in a makeup game on Monday afternoon. Phil Hughes is to take the ball on Saturday and Mike Mussina is on the menu to face the Blue Jays on Sunday.

And while Clemens was being moved, right-handed setup reliever Kyle Farnsworth was unavailable to pitch on a night the Yankees used eight pitchers. Farnsworth felt a little ``tug'' in the front of his shoulder while doing his pre-game routine.

``Not at all,'' Farnsworth said when asked if he was worried about the shoulder.

Bruney, meanwhile, sat on a stool in front of his locker looking a bit forlorn. The last of the eight Yankees pitchers who worked in the game, started the 14th inning with as strike out and ended it with two more.

But Zaun, the second batter Bruney faced in the fateful inning, reached out and mashed a fastball he could handle.

``My fastball had good life on it,'' Bruney said. ``I just got too much of the plate. It was the pitch I wanted. I just wanted to get it out a little more.

``I felt good tonight, I thought I threw the ball well,'' Bruney continued. ``A lot of people might not understand that, but a lot of times things don't go the way they should when you are pitching well. Sometimes, when you don't have a clue where the ball is going you get three pop ups, or three groundouts and get out of it.''

That the game rolled into the 14th inning was a minor miracle pulled off by the Yankees, who were having no success against Halladay until the ninth inning. New York had back-to-back hits to open the first inning, but failed to score. The Yankees had back to back-one-out hits in the fifth and again were denied.

While the Yankees were managing just five hits off Halladay through the first eight innings, the Blue Jays were seemingly on their way to beating Chien-Ming Wang for the third time this season.

The ninth-inning comeback enabled Wang to escape suffering losses in back-to-back starts for the first time since his first two starts this season.

Toronto got to Wang fro two runs in the seventh inning and Alex Rio slugged a two-run homer to give the Blue Jays a 4-0 lead in the eighth.

Halladay was in full control and his pitch count was at a tidy 90 after eight innings.

But Johnny Damon opened the ninth with a double down the left field line. Derek Jeter was unable to move Damon along, but Bobby Abreu delivered a single to center that left Yankees on the corners. Slumping Alex Rodriguez was next and lined a single to center that produced a run that upped his RBI total to a career best 143.

And still Toronto manager John Gibbons stuck with Halladay. Hideki Matsui grounded out. Jorge Posada hit a bouncer to second that Aaron Hill fielded and threw on an errant bounce at first base that tied up Lyle Overbay and enabled Abreu to score the second run of the inning. Sardinha ran for Posada.

Scott Downs finally relieved the shocked Halladay, who retreated to the dugout to sit and watch his find effort unravel even further. Robinson Cano and Jason Giambi hit back-to-back singles that ignited the crowd, the bench and tied the game 4-4.

Downs was relieved by Casey Janssen, who retired Melky Cabrera on a ground ball to first base.

Once the score was tied both offenses were put into lockdown mode by the respective bullpens until the deciding 14th inning.

gave up a one out walk to Mariano Rivera disposed of the Blue Jays on 10 pitches in the 10th inning. Joba Chamberlain, with his father Harlan in attendance, utilized nasty sliders to strike out four of the seven batters he faced in the 11th and 12th innings. Jose Vizcaino, after two were out, walked a batter and gave up a single before but escaped the 13th inning unscathed.

Toronto's bullpen was also up to the task in the extras. Casey Janssen walked Abreu after two were out in the 10th, but retired Rodriguez on a hard grounder that was snared by Russ Adams, who was guarding the line at third base. Jeremy Accardo took over in the 11th and worked two perfect innings.

Jeter's leadoff single past third off Brian Wolfe to open the bottom of the 13th was the 2,,443rd hit of his career and moved him ahead of Torre to No. 118th on the all-time hits list. Abreu hit into a fielder's choice and Rodriguez popped out to shortstop. Toronto manager John Gibbons played percentages and brought in left-hander Joe Kennedy to face Hideki Matsui, who drew a walk. But Kennedy settled to strike out catcher Jose Molina to end the inning.

``At home you feel you have the advantage,'' Torre lamented. ``We just didn't get the hits.''