Bo Bichette led off the bottom of the 12th inning on Friday night with a home run as the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the visiting Yankees, 6-5.
Bichette’s 11th homer of the season came against the left-hander Tyler Lyons (1-2).
Toronto’s Wilmer Font (2-2) pitched two perfect innings to earn the victory.
Combined with wins Friday by Houston and the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Yankees now lead both clubs by only one game in the race for the best record in baseball.
Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka allowed four runs and eight hits with six strikeouts and no walks in five innings. Toronto’s Anthony Kay, making his second career major league start, allowed five runs, seven hits and one walk while striking out two in four and a third innings.
Toronto’s Randal Grichuk hit his 26th home run of the season, a career high, with one out in the second inning to open the scoring.
The Blue Jays (58-90) added two in the fourth. Rowdy Tellez singled with one out and scored on Reese McGuire’s two-out double. McGuire scored on an infield hit by Teoscar Hernandez, who continued to second on a throwing error by second baseman Gleyber Torres.
The Yankees (97-52) answered in the next half-inning, taking the lead with a five-run fifth. Brett Gardner led off with a double to center and scored on a double to right by Clint Frazier, who continued to third on Grichuk’s throwing error. Austin Romine hit a run-scoring single, and D. J. LeMahieu followed with a single. LeMahieu was forced at second on a grounder to second by Torres for the first out of the inning. Romine then scored on Luke Voit’s fielder’s choice grounder to third, with Torres safe at second on a late throw by third baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Jason Adam replaced Kay, and his wild pitch put runners on second and third. Gio Urshela then hit a two-run single for a 5-3 Yankees lead.
The Blue Jays answered with a run in the bottom of the fifth when Bichette led off with a double and scored on Cavan Biggio’s single.
Adam Ottavino allowed a single to Richard Urena and walked Bichette to start the bottom of the seventh. Biggio’s grounder to first forced Bichette at second, leaving runners at the corners. Ottavino was called for a balk to allow the tying run to score.
Toronto’s Tim Mayza clutched his left elbow in pain after walking Didi Gregorius on a pitch that went behind the batter in the 10th. Ryan Tepera finished the inning.