TORONTO � Sonny Gray's second Yankees start wasn't a particularly sharp one, but nine innings of nonsupport would have scuttled even his best effort.
In the midst of a poor season, Blue Jays right-hander Marco Estrada found a route to victory on Thursday night, shutting out the Yankees over seven innings in a 4-0 Toronto win before 43,212 fans at Rogers Centre.
That gave the Yankees (60-53) a losing 3-4 road trip that began with a four-game split at Cleveland.
Now, Joe Girardi's club arrives home for a three-game series against the AL East-leading Red Sox, with the Yanks 4.5 games off the pace.
"When you're behind a club, you start running out of days that you can catch them" Girardi said earlier Thursday of the importance of such head-to-head matchups. The ancient rivals will face each other again in Boston next weekend, following the four-game, home-and-home Subway Series with the Mets.
In six innings on Thursday, Gray (6-7) gave up three runs � two earned � on four hits and four walks, with six strikeouts.
Chasen Shreve yielded a solo homer to Jose Bautista in the seventh, following Gray's 103-pitch outing.
The last-place Blue Jays (54-60) scored single runs in the second, third, and fourth innings off Gray, the last two runs coming on RBI singles by Josh Donaldson and Kevin Pillar.
The Yankees wasted doubles by Didi Gregorius, Garrett Cooper and Aaron Judge in each of the first three innings, though each of those two-base hits came with two out.
In the fifth, the Yanks put runners at first and second with none out, but Estrada retired Brett Gardner, Aaron Hicks (who just returned off the disabled list) and Judge, who has struck out at least once in 27 consecutive games.
That's the longest such streak in Yankees franchise history.
Entering Thursday with a 5.12 ERA, Estrada (5-8) yielded just five hits and three walks with six strikeouts.
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