MLB: New blow for Blue Jays as Bautista to miss rest of season

Jose Bautista's injury jinx has struck again after the player was left needing season-ending surgery, days after making a comeback from an inflamed wrist.

Toronto's Jose Bautista stretches before his comeback game against Baltimore.

Injury-plagued Toronto Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista will have season-ending surgery on his left wrist, the team has confirmed.

The two-time defending Major League Baseball home run leader aggravated the injury on Saturday in Baltimore just two days after returning from a month-long absence due to inflammation in his wrist.

The 31-year-old Dominican Republic native was examined in Cleveland by hand specialist Dr. Thomas Graham on Monday and will have surgery sometime next week.

"We followed the course of action that was recommended at each time during the recovery after the original injury," the three-time All-Star, said in a report on the team's website.

"The only way I could have played again this year without having surgery was to do what we did. I tried, there's just too much instability in that tendon."

Bautista, who is expected to be ready for spring training, ends his 2012 campaign with a .241 batting average, 27 home runs and 65 RBI in 92 games.

The Blue Jays have struggled this season and sit bottom in the American League East standings, well out of contention in the playoff race. Their poor form continued last night after they were defeated 2-1 by the New York Yankees.

Phil Hughes had another fine start at home, Nick Swisher extended his torrid streak with an RBI single as the Yankees handed Ricky Romero his 11th straight loss.

Hughes (13-11) won his sixth consecutive decision at Yankee Stadium, giving up only Adeiny Hechavarria's first major league homer in seven effective innings. He allowed four hits and walked three.

Rafael Soriano bounced back from a blown save Monday night, when he gave up a go-ahead homer to Colby Rasmus with two outs in the ninth, by working a perfect inning to finish the four-hitter for his 34th save in 37 tries.

Curtis Granderson hit a sacrifice fly to help the Yankees to their fifth win in 12 games. They beat Romero (8-12) for the third time during his winless skid.

National League East leaders the Washington Nationals suffered an embarrassing 9-0 defeat to the last-place Miami Marlins on Tuesday night.

Star pitcher Stephen Strasburg gave up a career-high seven runs in five innings as the Nationals lost their fifth game in a row.

After winning his previous four starts, Strasburg allowed five runs, gave up nine hits and struck out only three. He leads the NL with 186 strikeouts.

Miami's Ricky Nolasco claimed his third career shutout and eighth complete game.

There was also a 9-0 scoreline in Pittsburgh where Pedro Alvarez homered twice as the Pirates thrashed the St Louis Cardinals.

Pittsburgh moved within two games of the Cardinals in the race for the NL's second wild-card spot after the visitors played most of the game without catcher Yadier Molina, who suffered neck, back and shoulder injuries following a violent collision at the home plate with Pittsburgh second baseman Josh Harrison.

In total there were six shutouts in Tuesday's 15 games, with Tommy Milone and three Oakland relievers extending Cleveland's scoreless streak to 22 innings as the Athletics beat the Indians 7-0.

It was the A's fourth win in a row and they remain tied with Baltimore at the head of the AL wild-card race, with the Orioles another team not to concede a run.

Chris Tillman allowed just one hit over seven innings and Nick Markakis drove in three runs as the Orioles beat the Chicago White Sox 6-0.

The other shutouts saw the Texas Rangers beat the Tampa Bay Rays 1-0 and the Atlanta Braves win 2-0 at the San Diego Padres, but there were runs elsewhere.

The Cincinnati Reds beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-2 to make it three wins in four games and stretch their lead in the NL Central to seven games over the St Louis Cardinals.

Jeff Bianchi hit a three-run shot for his first home run in the major leagues to lead the Milwaukee Brewers to a 4-1 win over the Chicago Cubs, while the Colorado Rockies beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-4.

Pinch-hitter Hector Sanchez hit the go-ahead RBI single in the ninth inning as the San Francisco Giants came from behind to beat the Houston Astros 3-2, while Mike Moustakas had three hits and three RBIs as the Kansas City Royals beat the Detroit Tigers 9-8.

Justin Verlander, the reigning AL MVP and Cy Young Award winner, was charged with eight earned runs, matching his career high, in five and two-third innings.

Hisashi Iwakuma was much harder to hit as the Seattle Mariners beat the Minnesota Twins 5-2, while Ike Davis hit a tiebreaking double during a four-run 10th inning as the New York Mets beat the Philadelphia Phillies 9-5.

The Los Angeles Angels scored twice in the ninth inning to beat the Boston Red Sox 6-5.