CC Sabathia took the blame. Manager Joe Girardi spread it around.

No matter whose mistakes cost the Yankees in their sixth loss in nine games, they need to straighten things out: the quickly closing Baltimore Orioles are coming to the Bronx for three games starting Friday.

Sabathia failed to hold two leads, and New York made three errors and went homerless at Yankee Stadium in consecutive games for the first time this season. It all added up to an 8-5 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday.

''We didn't play well, that's the bottom line,'' Girardi said. ''We had chances offensively: didn't get it done. We had chances defensively: didn't get it done.''

The Yankees' inability to win back-to-back games for the first time since beating Texas three in a row Aug. 13-15 has hurt them in the standings. New York leads the AL East by 3½ games after Baltimore's 8-1 loss to the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday night.

The Yankees went 3-for-17 with runners in scoring position, even though they had six doubles for the first time since July 30, 2011.

''Things like this happen every once in a while. You just have to shake it off,'' Russell Martin said. ''We've got to bring it against the Orioles this weekend, for sure. It's a big one.''

Yunel Escobar had the big day for Toronto. The shortstop hit a two-run homer, three doubles and drove in five runs. He had a go-ahead RBI double in the third. His homer against Sabathia in the sixth gave the Blue Jays the lead again and his two-run double off Joba Chamberlain in the ninth helped secure Toronto's first series win since July 27-29. The five RBI matched a career high for Escobar.

''He feels like anything positive that happens to the club is going to be welcome right now,'' injured slugger Jose Bautista said, translating for Escobar. ''He feels like winning a series on the road against a club like the Yankees that's definitely a positive and he hopes it can help bring up team morale a little bit.''