Yankees' Sabathia wins seventh straight start

TORONTO -- CC Sabathia is making the hardest chore in sports look easy.

"Win when you are expected to win" is considered the most difficult assignment an athlete or team can receive. And since the Yankees' rotation is full of question marks behind Sabathia, every time the ace takes the ball, that game becomes a must win.

Having lost two straight to the Blue Jays when Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia didn't pitch well and the bullpen was used extensively, the Yankees turned to Sabathia yesterday pleading for quality and length, and the big lefty delivered.

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WELCOME HOME: Andruw Jones (left) is glad-handed by Derek Jeter after scoring in the second inning of the Yankees' 4-1 triumph over the Blue Jays yesterday in Toronto.

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"I always look forward to his starts," Mark Teixeira said after Sabathia beat the Blue Jays, 4-1, in front of 45,606 at Rogers Centre. "I know we have a really good chance to win. CC is so good, we feel like we'll win every game."

The Yankees remained 1½ games behind the Red Sox, 9-5 winners over the Rays, in the AL East.

Sabathia entered the game riding a career-high 23 2/3-innings scoreless streak that ended in the first. He admitted commanding his pitches was a challenge.

However, that was all the Blue Jays -- who played their second straight game without major league home run leader Jose Bautista -- would get off Sabathia.

He gave up only one run and three hits in eight innings, before Mariano Rivera worked a semi-nervous ninth for his 23rd save. Rivera surrendered consecutive one-out singles but rebounded to fan Aaron Hill and ended the game by inducing Travis Snider to ground out.

In his last seven starts, Sabathia is 7-0 with a 1.68 ERA. At 14-4, Sabathia leads the major leagues with victories and has firmly established himself as the leading candidate for the AL Cy Young award. Not to mention adding to his case for a new contract in exchange for not opting out at the end of the season.

After giving up a walk, a stolen base and an RBI single to Yunel Escobar in the first and a walk to Escobar and a single to Adam Lind to open the fourth, Sabathia retired 10 straight.

"My command was off early," said Sabathia, who on the advice of pitching coach Larry Rothschild lingered over the rubber longer to get back on track. "I got into the flow of the game and the fastball command came back."

Like Sabathia, Blue Jays lefty Ricky Romero was selected to the All-Star Game. While Sabathia was ineligible to pitch because he worked Sunday before the game, Romero traveled to Phoenix but didn't pitch.

In his third start of the year against the Yankees, Romero gave up four runs (three earned), six hits and walked three as he fell to 7-9.

Derek Jeter went 2-for-5 and with 3,007 hits is tied with Al Kaline for 26th place on the all-time list.

Brett Gardner went 3-for-4, scored a run and stole a base. Jeter, Andruw Jones and Eduardo Nunez drove in runs.

Nunez also committed his team-leading 12th error, throwing the ball away at first. Sabathia erased that by feeding Rajai Davis a double-play grounder.

"It seems like every time he's dominant," said Gardner, who turned a leadoff flare to center in the fourth into a double and scored on Jeter's two-out infield single to short.

Gardner also used his speed to beat out a bunt single and swipe a base, and is 10 for his last 10 attempts.

Teixeira couldn't recall when that good feeling about having Sabathia on the mound began to wash over the Yankees. But it was easy to believe they had the right man hurling at the right time.

"The first two games after the break we got our butts kicked," said Teixeira, who went 1-for-5 and is in a 2-for-16 funk. "We needed CC."

george.king@nypost.com