Old form Colon outduels Buehrle 3-1 as Cano ripps three run blast

NEW YORK—Bartolo Colon looked like the ace of old, shutting down the White Sox over eight crisp innings, and Robinson Cano hit an early three-run homer to give the New York Yankees a 3-1 victory Wednesday night.A pleasant surprise for the Yankees thus far, Colon (2-1) escaped a bases-loaded jam with nobody out and outpitched Mark Buehrle, giving him two wins in two starts this season — his first in the majors since 2009.The husky right-hander, who won the 2005 AL Cy Young Award for the Angels, signed a minor league deal in February and was brought to spring training to provide pitching depth. He had a strong camp and made the team as a long reliever, but has quickly become an April savior for a New York rotation missing injured All-Star Phil Hughes.The 37-year-old Colon, who beat Toronto 6-2 last Wednesday, flashed an overpowering fastball that had been missing for years as he struggled to overcome injuries. Hitting 94-95 mph on the stadium radar gun, he struck out six and walked one against his former team.Colon allowed seven hits, including Adam Dunn’s RBI single in the sixth, and threw 65 of his 99 pitches for strikes in a game that took just 2 hours, 11 minutes. It was the first time he pitched more than seven innings since Sept. 22, 2007, with the Angels against Seattle in a 3-2 loss.Mariano Rivera worked a perfect ninth for his eighth save after blowing his previous two chances.The victory made Joe Girardi the ninth manager to reach 300 regular-season wins with the Yankees. He is 300-207 since taking over before the 2008 season.Buehrle (1-3) pitched well but failed in his fifth attempt at career win No. 150. The left-hander gave up six hits in seven innings, dropping to 1-8 against the Yankees in his career. He struck out five and walked two.Before the game, Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen joked that he was surprised to learn Colon had showed up at the ballpark — a reference to Colon’s injury-plagued 2009 stint with the White Sox during which he was away from the team for long stretches and sometimes hard to find, Guillen said.Guillen wasn’t around to see most of Colon’s impressive outing – the outspoken manager was ejected in the first inning for arguing a called third strike against slugger Paul Konerko. Guillen immediately took to Twitter during the game, calling the ejection pathetic and saying it would cost him a pricey fine.It was Guillen’s 26th career ejection and first this season.Buehrle walked leadoff batter Derek Jeter in the first and Alex Rodriguez blooped a two-out single that put runners at the corners.Cano lined a 1-1 pitch into the right-field stands — not far from where late substitute Brent Lillibridge made two dazzling catches in a row Tuesday night to rob the Yankees of a ninth-inning comeback in a 3-2 loss.Cano has homered in two straight and four of his last five home games.Colon wriggled out of a bases-loaded, none-out jam in the second. He gave up three straight one-out singles in the sixth and feigned firing his glove away when Dunn’s base hit went through the box and into center field.Colon recovered by getting Alex Rios on a flyball and throwing a called third strike past A.J. Pierzynski.

NOTES—After the game, Girardi said a battery of tests revealed that Hughes has a low-level risk of a circulatory problem. The team is sending him to St. Louis to see a specialist, Dr. William Thompson. … New York 1B Mark Teixeira was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the eighth. Girardi said Teixeira has a sore shoulder. … Colon hit Carlos Quentin with a pitch in the third, the seventh time Quentin has been plunked this season. No other major league player had more than four going into Wednesday. … Quentin hit his major league-leading 13th double in the first. … 44-year-old Omar Vizquel started for the Sox at third base. … Girardi said he’s confident that struggling setup man Rafael Soriano will find his form. “I believe this guy is too talented for this to continue,” Girardi said.