TORONTO _ Aaron Judge's strong September showing continued on Sunday, with two more home runs _ leaving him one shy of the MLB rookie mark.
Jaime Garcia didn't make it through the third inning at Rogers Centre, and the Yankees were already in an eight-run hole before Judge connected for homers No. 47 and 48 on the year.
On a warm afternoon, the Blue Jays finished the home portion of their schedule with a 9-5 victory, and a sellout crowd of 47,394 saluted slugger Jose Bautista (2 for 4, walk) who likely made his final appearance in a Toronto uniform.
Just before Sunday's first pitch, Bautista ran out to his right field position alone, backed by a loud standing ovation. The fans kept standing and cheering through Bautista's at-bats, including an RBI single in Toronto's four-run fourth inning off reliever Bryan Mitchell.
With one out in the ninth, Bautista was subbed out of the game and the crowd responded with a prolonged standing ovation; he came out of the dugout for an encore, waving his cap and applauding the fans.
Judge clubbed a solo shot in the sixth inning and hit a two-run blast in the seventh, cutting the lead to 9-5.
With seven games remaining, Judge is now one homer away from matching Mark McGwire's rookie record of 49 home runs set with the 1987 Oakland Athletics.
Judge has 11 home runs in September, the most he's hit in any calendar month.
Garcia (5-10) received another quick hook from manager Joe Girardi, and it's unclear if the veteran lefty _ and member of the 2011 world champion Cardinals _ has any standing on a Yankee playoff roster.
A day after the Yankees (86-69) clinched a wild-card berth, Garcia was charged with five runs on four hits and three walks in just 21/3 innings.
Garcia exited with the bases loaded in the third, and watched as Russell Martin drove in all three with a two-out double off Jonathan Holder.
Teoscar Hernandez led off the first inning with his third home run of the series, while right-hander Marcus Stroman (13-8) lasted 52/3 innings, charged with three runs.
After losing six of nine games this year at Toronto against the last-place Jays (73-83), the Yankees travel home for their final seven games, beginning with Monday afternoon's rainout makeup against Kansas City.
