Blue Jays win a classic slugfest over New York Yankees to move into a tie for first in AL East

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Baseball fans at the Rogers Centre were treated to a true heavyweight slugfest on Wednesday night with first place at stake for two AL East rivals.

The Blue Jays and New York Yankees exchanged both jabs and body blows all night long, combining for 28 hits and five home runs.

Toronto pounced first with seven runs in the first inning — five before it recorded its first out. The Yankees answered back with a six-run fifth, then tied it in the eighth. The Jays, however, scored twice in the bottom half on a wild pitch and an RBI single by Addison Barger to pull out a wild 11-9 victory and pull even with the Yankees atop the division.

The Canada Day fireworks show carried over into Wednesday night, as Andres Gimenez, thrust into the leadoff spot with Bo Bichette still sidelined, recorded two hits in the first inning alone, Davis Schneider belted a pair of home runs, Barger added another while Giancarlo Stanton went deep for the first time this season for the Yanks. Both Barger and Schneider, who was getting a rare start against a right-hander (he was 4-for-8 against Will Warren in his career) drove in four runs.

Not to be overlooked was Aaron Judge’s two-run, game-tying belt in the eighth, his 31st of the season, off Yimi Garcia, who was making his return to the Toronto bullpen after a stay on the injured list.

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Sadly, this riveting four-game series wraps up on Thursday. The first three — all won by the Jays — have been characterized by drama, theatrics and pulsating entertainment. The Bronx Bombers, however, will be back in town in three weeks for a three-game series beginning on July 21.

As for Wednesday’s epic game, Jose Berrios appeared to be cruising, pitching with an 8-0 lead before the roof started to cave in. The Yankees began the frame with five successive hits — four singles and a long Judge double — to make it 8-3. Berrios caught a break when Cody Bellinger’s liner to left was caught by Schneider, but Stanton followed with a three-run blast to centre and the visitors were back in the game.

Judge was walked intentionally for the fourth time in the series in the sixth inning and Bellinger cut the lead to 8-7 when the Jays couldn’t turn a double play on his slow grounder to second.

Schneider’s second homer gave the Jays a little more breathing room but Judge’s blast in the eighth, after Garcia had walked Ben Rice, knotted the score at 9-9.

That set the stage for the tense finish as Jeff Hoffman, given the two-run lead, finished it off with his 20th save of the season.

The announced crowd of 30,985, a number that pushed the three-game total in excess of 100,000, went from the high of watching the home side score so quickly and frequently to a state of anxiety, only to walk out of the dome exhilarated.