Yankees beat Blue Jays with four home runs in eighth straight win

TORONTO — Maybe the entirety of the 162-game season for the 2022 Yankees will qualify as the “soft” part of their schedule.

Up until a week or so ago, a theory had been floated — a not especially well-thought-out one — that the Yankees had fattened up on the endless feast of tomato cans in the American League, of which there is no shortage. But as the calendar ticks past mid-June, it’s clear that the opponent isn’t particularly relevant.

Indeed, after sweeping one of the preseason AL East contenders, the Rays, the Yankees started a three-game series Friday night against the division’s preseason favorite with a burst-your-bubble 12-3 rout of the Blue Jays in front of 44,688 mostly despondent fans at Rogers Centre.

In earning their eighth straight victory, 15th in 16 games and 41st in 51 games, the Yankees (48-16) embarrassed the second-place Blue Jays (37-27), who now are 11 games back in the standings.

“I know what it is, so I guess I look at it,’’ Aaron Boone said of the lead. “But it’s not something you want to get too caught up in here in the middle of June. You just want to keep stacking as many victories as you can.”

The Bombers again honored the nickname with homers on consecutive pitches by Giancarlo Stanton and DJ LeMahieu to begin an eight-run fifth inning, a 435-foot grand slam by Anthony Rizzo with two outs in the big inning, and a two-run shot by Joey Gallo in the ninth. His homer nearly reached the fifth level in rightfield.

Rizzo hit the grand slam two batters after Aaron Judge was intentionally walked to get to Josh Donaldson, who struck out for the second out. “It felt good,’’ Rizzo said. “They walk Judgie, and just to be able to come through, our MVP getting walked, we all kind of want to make them pay at all times when anyone gets intentionally walked, but the year he’s having, we want to always have his back, and hitting a grand slam is the best way to do it.”

Rizzo, who hit a walk-off homer against the Rays on Thursday night, has six homers in his last 13 games and 18 RBIs in his last 14 games. It was his sixth career grand slam and 17th homer of the season. Stanton’s two-run shot was his 14th homer.

The Yankees extended their MLB-leading homer total to 105 and outhit the Blue Jays 14-5. “I just think we’re a group of guys who have been around for a while to know what it takes every day to get ready for a game and the mentality to get ready for a game,’’ Rizzo said. “Just celebrating a win, but when we lose, we get over it quickly and prepare the next day to win a baseball game.”

LeMahieu went 3-for-4 and is 78-for-225 (.347) against the Blue Jays. Gleyber Torres had two doubles and Gallo (three RBIs), Rizzo and Judge also had two hits as the Yankees moved to 23-10 against the AL East.

“People always say the AL East is tough,'' Jordan Montgomery said. "A lot of good teams in it. Someone said earlier, Toronto would be winning in two divisions if they weren’t in ours.”

Montgomery, at last getting some consistent run support after consistently not getting much support at all for a year-plus, allowed two runs and three hits in six innings in improving to 3-1 with a 2.72 ERA.

Montgomery said of his mentality watching the offense: “Just get out there and get back [to the dugout] as fast as I can so they can keep hitting.”

The Blue Jays took a 1-0 lead in the second on a single by Gabriel Moreno (three hits).

LeMahieu led off the fourth with a single and scored on Torres’ double to left-center. Torres went to third on Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s flyout and scored on Kyle Higashioka’s trickler, making it 2-1.

The Yankees erupted in the fifth against Trent Thornton, who allowed five runs and five hits in one-third of an inning.

Rizzo led off and was hit by a pitch — he leads all major-leaguers in hit by pitches since 2011 with 188 (Starling Marte is next with 137) — and Stanton followed by poking a slider off the end of his bat that somehow carried over the rightfield wall for a 4-1 lead. LeMahieu then drove a first-pitch fastball over the wall in center and Torres and Gallo each doubled to make it 6-1. By inning’s end, the Yankees were outhitting the Blue Jays 12-1.

The Yankees had gotten to the team hotel after 4 a.m. Friday. “It’s a special group,’’ Boone said. “Today could have easily been one of those days and it would have been understandable. It was a grind getting here . . . just a really good effort to start this road trip.”

Rizzo said of the offensive explosion: “It’s fun. Especially after our long travel night last night. Rolling in, you know everyone’s tired. It’s a long night, but the energy on the bench was really good early on.”