Jose Cruz Jr. set the tone for the Blue Jays early on Tuesday, hitting the fifth pitch of the game over the left-field wall. It didn't get better from there, as Toronto hit Andy Pettitte hard, defeating the Yankees 14-0 at SkyDome.

"Easy one to forget," said Yankees Manager Joe Torre. "You'd like to just turn the page."

The Yankees were never in the game, as Pettitte put New York in a 5-0 hole after the first inning. After Cruz hit his leadoff shot, his ninth of the season against the Yankees, Alex Gonzalez and Shannon Stewart hit back-to-back singles off the Yankees' southpaw. Pettitte retired the next two batters, but couldn't get out of the inning. Vernon Wells knocked Gonzalez home with a single. Stewart and Wells then scored on Felipe Lopez's triple, which made it a 4-0 game. Toronto added a run on a single by Cesar Izturis, as the Jays batted around to lead off the contest.

"Today was ugly. It was disappointing," said Pettitte. "We were on a nice roll, so it was very disappointing to put us in a hole to start the game off. Carpenter was on his game in the first inning and he was sharp and settled in after that and it was pretty much over."

Given a big lead, Toronto starter Chris Carpenter went to work against the Yankee lineup. Carpenter allowed a single in the second and another in the third, but didn't allow anything else through six innings. Carpenter struck out at least one batter in each of the first seven innings, whiffing a career-high 12 batters.

"My curveball is doubly effective when I have my fastball and I had it tonight," Carpenter said. "They have a lot of great professional hitters and I'm just going to continue to build on this."

Toronto added two more runs in the third, as the Jays drove Pettitte from the game after three innings. The left-hander, who has not won in his last four starts, allowed seven runs (six earned) on 10 hits, walking one and striking out four.

"I felt pretty good," said Pettitte (14-9). "They hit a couple of balls hard, hit some balls where we weren't. I just didn't make the right pitch when I had to in order to get people out."

"Andy threw the ball well. He was better than the numbers show," Torre said. "He's done too much in the past to worry about. He happened to throw where they were swinging."

Rookie Ted Lilly, recalled from Triple-A on Saturday, relieved Pettitte to begin the fourth. After retiring the first two hitters he faced, Lilly gave up a single to Wells before Lopez hit his second home run of the season, a two-run shot to left to make it a 9-0 game.

The lopsided score gave Torre a chance to empty his bench and take a look at some of his bench players and September call-ups, something that the Yankees don't normally get to do in a pennant race.

Among the replacements were Nick Johnson, Erick Almonte, Juan Rivera, Bobby Estalella and Gerald Williams. For Almonte and Rivera, it marked the first Major League at-bats of their careers. Almonte singled to left in his debut, while Rivera popped out to first.

"We like him," Torre said of Almonte. "He had a good game in a split squad game in Spring Training. He has tools. It was the one nice thing to look at tonight, the base hit by the youngster."

Enrique Wilson and Shane Spencer were the only Yankee starters to play the entire game, though Wilson played three positions throughout the night, moving from third to shortstop to second.

The Jays added to their lead in the seventh, getting an offensive contribution from the unlikeliest of places. After Lilly allowed two singles and a walk, Toronto Manager Buck Martinez sent veteran Tony Fernandez to the plate to pinch-hit for Stewart. Fernandez, who has not hit a home run since returning to Toronto earlier this season, crushed Lilly's 3-2 offering into the left field seats, putting his team ahead 13-0.

"It was a very special night. It would be a nice way to end it," said Fernandez, who will retire after this season. "The guys told me I should just pack it in and go."

"Lilly had some bad innings," Torre said. "He got behind on some hitters, gave up the grand slam to Tony when he had to throw a strike on 3-2. I thought he was pretty much the same pitcher we sent out."

Lopez's second home run of the game, a solo shot in the eighth off Mike Stanton, accounted for Toronto's final run.

Carpenter (9-11) allowed just six hits and no walks in tossing his first shutout of the season. It was the fourth time the Yankees were blanked this season, and their first loss at SkyDome in six games. The Yankees had not suffered a 14-0 shutout since the Brewers beat them by the same score in 1982, and hadn't lost by 14 runs since a 15-1 loss to Boston in 1990.

"No walks is huge. You don't walk anybody and you don't get into trouble," Carpenter said. "I don't think I've ever lost with 14 runs. They made it easy for me to do my job."

Derek Jeter, who was to have a scheduled day off on Wednesday, left the game after the first inning with tightness in his left hamstring. The injury, suffered while running out a grounder in the first inning, has nothing to do with the quadriceps injury that Jeter suffered in Spring Training.

"It grabbed a little bit, it was tight. I didn't want to take any chances, so they took me out of the game," Jeter said. "At this point in the season we to be real cautious. I wasn't going to play tomorrow and then we have the scheduled day off. We'll evaluate it on Friday. Better now than two weeks from now."

"I saw he ran slower than usual to first base. He received some treatment and it was still tight. He won't play tomorrow. We will see about him on Friday," Torre said. "You always worry about this. It was more fatigue than anything. He wasn't limping and that is a good thing. Hopefully it was nothing more than tightness."

Roger Clemens takes the mound in search of his 19th win on Wednesday, while Toronto sends Kelvim Escobar to start in the rubber match of the three-game series.