BUFFALO — Aaron Judge said he liked the fight the Yankees have shown of late — and that was before they finished off another comeback victory to complete a sweep of the Blue Jays at Sahlen Field with an 8-4 win.
Giancarlo Stanton delivered the go-ahead homer, a two-run shot to right in the top of the seventh, and Chris Gittens added some insurance with a pinch-hit, two-run single.
“I think that shows what this team is made of,’’ Judge said of the first two one-run wins in the series. “This whole year, when we got down early, we’ve been pretty flat. That’s not the team we are. We’re a team that can come back [from] 5-0, 3-0. It doesn’t matter with this team.’’
And for a Yankees team that has looked bad on defense, they looked just fine Thursday, turning their second triple play of the year and Judge robbing Cavan Biggio of a two-run homer in the sixth.
The triple play got Michael King out of a jam in the bottom of the first. After Marcus Semien walked and Bo Bichette reached on an infield single, both runners advanced on a wild pitch.
But then the Blue Jays proved the Yankees didn’t have a copyright on poor baserunning. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a comebacker to King, who got Guerrero at first, then the Yankees caught Semien and Bichette between bases for a 1-3-6-2-5-6 triple play.
Gio Urshela led off the second with a double and got to third on a Brett Gardner infield single.
Miguel Andujar followed with a comebacker that T.J. Zeuch threw into center field for an error, allowing Urshela to score and leaving the Yankees with runners on the corners and no one out for Tyler Wade, who grounded to third and Gardner got thrown out on the play.
DJ LeMahieu walked to load the bases. Judge struck out and Gleyber Torres grounded out, and the Yankees came away with just one run.
Urshela came through with his second big hit of the game in the third, a two-run homer to left to put the Yankees up, 3-0.
The Blue Jays got two runs back in the bottom of the inning, with an RBI double by Reese McGuire and a run-scoring groundout from Bichette.
Zeuch lasted just three innings before being replaced by Joel Payamps.
Urshela made a fantastic throw to get Gurriel on a grounder down the third base line to end the fourth.
King left with one on and one out in the fifth, and Lucas Luetge gave up a long fly ball to left. Andujar’s issues near the wall continued, as he failed to chase it down near the line. It went for a double, but the misplay was costly, as grounder by Semien scored Santiago Espinal from third to tie the game at 3-3.
Toronto went ahead with Randal Grichuk’s RBI single off Chad Green in the sixth before Stanton gave the Yankees the lead again an inning later with a two-run shot to right off Toronto’s shaky bullpen.
Gary Sanchez and Urshela followed with singles before Gardner bunted them over and Andujar grounded out.
The Yankees then went to Gittens to hit for Wade, despite having already lost Torres to back tightness. The move paid off, as Gittens delivered a two-run single to right to make it 7-4, as the Yankees completed a four-run inning — all off Anthony Castro.
It was the third clutch pinch-hit of the series, as Clint Frazier and Sanchez also had pinch-hits that gave the Yankees the lead.