TORONTO _ In the middle of this 11-game trip that started so poorly, Joe Girardi said he hoped the Yankees could at the very least stay relevant in the AL wild-card chase entering the season's final week.
Instead, by the end of the weekend, they could officially reach irrelevance insofar as being mathematically alive.
Their offense barren a second straight night, the Yankees were steamrolled by the Blue Jays Friday night, 9-0, in front of a noisy sellout crowd of 47,016 at Rogers Centre.
The Yankees (79-74) dropped four games behind the Tigers for the second wild card and fell to 2-6 on the trip that began with a four-game sweep by the Red Sox at Fenway Park.
"I think it's important that we put together some wins here and we put a streak together so we stay relevant," Girardi said before Tuesday night's game against the Rays in St. Petersburg, Fla. "I think that's the most important thing, is we move forward here and give ourselves a chance the last week."
The Yankees' offense hasn't given them much of a chance the last two games, producing zero runs in 18 innings.
Friday night left-hander Francisco Liriano pitched six shutout innings, allowing three hits, two of them to Gary Sanchez.
The Yankees, who went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11 in Thursday night's loss, went 0-for-4 with RISP against Liriano and stranded six. They did not put a runner in scoring position after the third inning.
Right-hander Bryan Mitchell, victimized by two unearned runs in the first, wasn't bad, allowing three runs total and six hits in six innings.
Righty reliever Blake Parker torched things in the seventh, allowing four runs, as the Blue Jays sent 11 to the plate, to make it 7-0. Josh Donaldson's two-run homer in the eighth off Ben Heller, his 36th of the season, made it 9-0.
In many ways, the game was decided in the first inning.
Sanchez doubled with two outs in the inning and the Yankees soon had the bases loaded as Billy Butler and Didi Gregorius walked. Chase Headley, however, struck out on four pitches to end the 28-pitch inning.
The Blue Jays (84-69), who own the first wild-card spot, loaded the bases in the bottom half with two outs and got the key hit the Yankees did not.
After leadoff man Devon Mitchell flied out, Donaldson reached when Butler, getting the start at first, booted a routine grounder. Edwin Encarnacion then beat the shift with a slow bouncer through the right side.
Mitchell struck out Jose Bautista swinging at a 95-mph fastball but former Yankee Russell Martin walked to load the bases for Troy Tulowitzki. The shortstop fell behind 0-and-1 before stinging a 94-mph fastball to left-center for a two-run single that made it 2-0.
After Liriano set down the Yankees in order in the second, Mitchell was in trouble again in the bottom half.
Kevin Pillar and Ezequiel Carrera started the inning with singles, Travis moved the runners with a sacrifice, and Donaldson walked to load the bases.
Up came Encarnacion, a career .326 hitter with the bases loaded, and Mitchell pitched carefully, walking the first baseman on five pitches, forcing in a run to make it 3-0.
Mitchell did keep it there, getting Bautista to hit into a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning.
Bautista hit a two-run double in the four-run seventh and was hit in the side by Ben Heller, on a 0-and-2 pitch, in the eighth. Plate umpire Tom Hallion then issued warnings to both benches.
