updated 9:12 p.m. ET Aug. 8, 2007

TORONTO - Blue Jays third-base coach Brian Butterfield accused the New York Yankees of making “two terrible slides” into second base during the first two games of their current series.

Before Wednesday’s series finale, Butterfield became upset when talking about Johnny Damon’s slide into second baseman Aaron Hill on Monday Shelley Duncan’s takeout of shortstop John McDonald on Tuesday.

“They were both terrible — you can print that,” Butterfield said. “Two terrible slides. They’re terrible, if they don’t agree with that, they’re looking through different colored glasses.”

Damon, who appeared to clip Hill’s leg, didn’t agree with Butterfield’s assessment.

“He shouldn’t be complaining about that,” Damon said. “I was almost safe on that. That’s what I had to do. I didn’t go at Hill’s legs or anything. I knew I was coming in hard and I was like ‘Heads up’ and he moved out of the way.”

Hill had no problem with the play.

“It was the last out and he was just coming in hard,” Hill said. “I don’t mind that at all.”

Duncan crashed into McDonald’s left leg in the sixth inning Tuesday, knocking McDonald’s glove off and sending the ball rolling away. McDonald quickly got to his feet to chase down the ball.

“How I went into second base is how I go in all the time: hard,” Duncan said. “I play the game that way. It had no bearing on the way the game played out or the kind of stuff we had before that. That’s just the way I play the game.”

It’s the latest episode in a long-running spat between the two teams. It was sparked May 30 when Rodriguez distracted former Toronto infielder Howie Clark on a key popup late in a game, yelling at Clark as A-Rod approached third base.

Toronto’s Jesse Litsch threw behind Rodriguez’s legs in A-Rod’s first at-bat Monday, and Josh Towers hit Rodriguez on the right calf in the third inning Tuesday, leading to the benches and bullpens clearing twice.

Yankees manager Joe Torre and pitcher Roger Clemens were ejected after Clemens hit Toronto’s Alex Rios in the middle of his back with his first pitch of the seventh.

Hill said he’s tired of the bad blood.

“Everything about it last night was stupid and it was something that should’ve been over a long time ago,” Hill said. “It started this big, long mess, and it was definitely unneeded.”

Wearing an ice pack on a leg, Rodriguez was held out of the starting lineup for just the second time this season. He did not stretch or participate in batting practice.

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Towers called Yankees first base coach Tony Pena a quitter on Tuesday and accused him of inciting the second bench-clearing situation.

Pena quit as manager of Kansas City in May 2005.

“That’s unfortunate,” Torre said. “Obviously he doesn’t know Tony Pena very well. I’d like to believe it was an emotional thing that he was sorry he said the day after he said it. Usually when you form an opinion about somebody, you’d like to know a little more about them than reading something in the paper or hearing something from somebody else.”

Also Wednesday, Yankees right fielder Bobby Abreu was ejected for arguing a called third strike with plate umpire Derryl Cousins in the fourth inning.

Upset after being called out looking for the second straight at-bat, Abreu argued with Cousins on his way back to the dugout. Torre came out to speak to Cousins.

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