NEW YORK — Justin Verlander followed the trajectory of the ball and watched helplessly as Alex Rodriguez's opposite-field fly settled softly into the second row of right-field seats.

All of a sudden, after six dominant innings, Verlander was losing.

Welcome to the new Yankee Stadium.

CC Sabathia beat Verlander in a prime pitching matchup that lived up to its billing, and Rodriguez's pop-fly homer sent the New York Yankees to a 2-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers yesterday.

"It's very frustrating," Verlander said. "It's very disappointing to throw the ball as well as I did and come away with a loss."

Sabathia (9-6) tossed seven shutout innings, working out of trouble all afternoon for his eighth victory in 11 decisions. Mariano Rivera got three quick outs for a save and Derek Jeter made an outstanding defensive play in the ninth.

"The game had a feeling that one mistake, one pitch, one swing was going to be the difference," Rodriguez said.

Melky Cabrera legged out an infield single to drive in the second run against Verlander (10-5), who took a three-hit shutout into the seventh before running into some tough luck.

Rodriguez led off with a high fly toward Yankee Stadium's short right-field porch. Verlander watched it the whole way, then smiled in disbelief after the ball carried over the fence.

"If it went out by 10 rows, all right. But just scraping the back of the wall is frustrating. I'd rather a guy hit it 10 miles," Verlander said. "I didn't think he hit it very well, but it had the right trajectory and he hit it to the right part of the field."

It was Rodriguez's 571st home run, two behind Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew for ninth place.

BLUE JAYS 6, RED SOX 2:

Adam Lind hit a two-run homer and Marc Rzepczynski (1-1) allowed one run and four hits in six innings as host Toronto ended a three-game skid, while snapping Boston's four-game winning streak.

WHITE SOX 4, ORIOLES 3:

Mark Buehrle (10-3) gave up a run on eight hits over 7 1/3 innings, Jermaine Dye hit a two-run homer and host Chicago (47-43), which started the season 15-22, closed to 1 1/2 games of Central-leading Detroit.

ANGELS 11, ATHLETICS 6:

Chone Figgins led off the game with a homer, Erick Aybar drove in a career-high four runs, every starter got a hit and visiting Los Angeles capitalized on four Oakland errors for its fifth win in six games.

RAYS 4, ROYALS 2:

Willy Aybar was 4-for-4, including an RBI double for a 3-2 lead, and B.J. Upton capped the three-run rally in the top of the eighth inning with an RBI single as visiting Tampa Bay beat Kansas City.

MARINERS 3, INDIANS 1:

Franklin Gutierrez slammed into the center-field fence in the first inning to make a leaping catch and homered against his former team for the second straight night to lead visiting Seattle past Cleveland.

TWINS 4, RANGERS 1:

Scott Baker (8-7) allowed a run and eight hits over eight innings, and Michael Cuddyer homered as Minnesota moved within two games of first-place Detroit in the Central, while handing Texas its fourth straight loss.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

PIRATES 2, GIANTS 0:

Charlie Morton (2-2) allowed three hits over seven innings, John Grabow pitched a perfect eighth and Matt Capps worked out of a two-on, none out jam in the ninth to earn his 20th save for host Pittsburgh.

CUBS 6, NATIONALS 5:

Alfonso Soriano, who missed Friday night's game with a swollen right pinkie, hit a go-ahead three-run homer in the sixth, connecting for the first time in six weeks, as visiting Chicago bet Washington.

DIAMONDBACKS 4, CARDINALS 2:

Dan Haren (10-5) allowed one run and four hits over eight innings, lowering his major league-best ERA to 1.96, and drove in a run with a bases-loaded walk to lead visiting Arizona over St. Louis.

METS 5, BRAVES 1:

Johan Santana (11-7) scattered five hits over seven scoreless innings and visiting New York scored two runs in the sixth to snap a streak of 19 consecutive scoreless innings, then added two in the ninth to beat Atlanta.

MARLINS-PHILLIES POSTPONED:

Florida's home game against Philadelphia was postponed after a 90-minute rain delay with the Marlins leading 2-0 in the second inning. No makeup date was announced.

BREWERS 5, REDS 1:

Craig Counsell's solo homer started a four-run surge in the top of the fourth inning against Aaron Harang (5-10) and Milwaukee's bullpen worked three scoreless innings, protecting a victory over Cincinnati.

DODGERS 5, ASTROS 2:

Clayton Kershaw (8-5) allowed two hits over seven scoreless innings to win his fifth straight decision and host Los Angeles celebrated manager Joe Torre's 69th birthday with a victory over Houston.

PADRES 3, ROCKIES 1:

Chase Headley's pinch-hit homer broke a 1-all tie in the bottom of the seventh, lifting San Diego over the Colorado. An inning earlier, Padre Edgar Gonzalez was beaned by a fastball from Jason Hammel and carted off the field.