Major League Baseball
Toronto 8, NY Yankees 4
When: 7:05 PM ET, Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Where: Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York
Temperature: 86°
Umpires: Home - Chad Fairchild, 1B - Jim Joyce, 2B - Marvin Hudson, 3B - James Hoye
Attendance: 38959

NEW YORK -- Watching Russell Martin drive a pitch over the left field wall was a positive sign for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Seeing the right-handed-hitting catcher drive another pitch over the right field fence was even more encouraging.

Martin hit his first two home runs of the season in consecutive at-bats Wednesday night as the Blue Jays defeated the New York Yankees 8-4.

"Since the Twins series, I've been swinging the bat better, making better contact," said Martin, referring to last weekend's four-game set at Minnesota. "I just made a couple of subtle adjustments. I was hitting the ball better in batting practice, and it finally translated into the game for me."

The improved practice swings and changes resulted in Martin ending a 124-at-bat drought to start the season without a home run. It was his longest since going homerless in the first 217 at-bats for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2009.

Martin finally ended his drought in the sixth inning when he drove a 1-0 pitch from Ivan Nova (3-2) over the left field wall, giving Toronto a 3-1 lead. His next swing was on a 1-2 pitch from Chasen Shreve with two outs in the seventh, and it carried over the right field wall, extending the advantage to 7-1.

"When I'm going the other way, it's a pretty good indicator that my swing is going the right way," Martin said.

It was Martin's 11th career multi-home run game and third with Toronto. Coincidentally, his last one was in Yankee Stadium on Sept. 11, 2015, when he connected off Andrew Bailey and Shreve.

"That's who he is," Toronto manager John Gibbons said. "He really might have the most opposite-field power on the team. We saw that last year, and he's been trying to do that. It's not a lack of work. He's been working on that and that is his strength and hopefully he builds on that."

Martin's second home run also made some unique history as it came after Michael Saunders hit a two-run drive off Shreve in the seventh.

Saunders, who is from British Columbia, and Martin, who is from Quebec, became the first set of Canadian-born teammates to homer in the same inning. It marked the sixth instance two Canadian-born teammates homered in the same game. Corey Koskie and Justin Morneau did it five times for the Twins, including once against the Yankees.

"I just found that out after the game," Saunders said. "I'm sure it would have happened a lot sooner if I didn't miss all of last year, but seeing Russ get going here, he's starting to swing the bat a lot better as of late. Seeing him drive the ball tonight, especially opposite field, it's a good sign."

The Blue Jays (23-25) won for the fourth time in six games, and every starter collected at least one hit.

Ryan Goins, who started at shortstop for Troy Tulowitzki (right quad), opened the scoring with a two-run double in the fourth. Edwin Encarnacion capped the scoring with an RBI single in the eighth.

Marco Estrada (2-2) pitched through a head cold and some wildness to give the Blue Jays seven innings. He worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the third by allowing only one run on a Brett Gardner forceout and ended a six-game winless streak by giving up three runs and four hits.

"That was the one chance we had to really put some runs on him, and we weren't able to do it," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said of the third inning.

After Martin's second blast, Estrada allowed consecutive solo shots to Chase Headley and Didi Gregorius to open the seventh. Estrada finished the seventh, and three relievers combined to close out the win.

Chad Girodo allowed a pinch-hit home run to Austin Romine in the ninth for the final margin. Closer Roberto Osuna completed Toronto's ninth win in its past 12 visits to New York.

The Yankees (22-23) had a season-high, six-game winning streak snapped as Nova allowed four runs and seven hits in 6 2/3 innings.

"I thought he gave us a pretty good game," Girardi said. "He pitched better than what his line was."

NOTES: Yankees manager Joe Girardi said the team plans on activating DH Alex Rodriguez (strained right hamstring) from the disabled list Thursday. Rodriguez hit a two-run home run in his second rehab game for Double-A Trenton. ... The Blue Jays activated 2B Devon Travis from the DL, doing so about a week before he was expected to come back from offseason left shoulder surgery. ... Toronto SS Troy Tulowitzki sat out with tightness in his right quad and remains day-to-day. Manager John Gibbons said Tulowitzki still is sore but feeling better than Tuesday. ... Yankees 1B Mark Teixeira was in the original starting lineup, but Girardi said he was out because of a recurrence of neck spasms that sidelined him for two games May 10-11. ... To get Travis on the active roster, Toronto optioned LHP/RHP Pat Venditte to Triple-A Buffalo.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Toronto   NY Yankees
Marco Estrada Player Ivan Nova
Win W/L Loss
7.0 IP 6.2
2 Strikeouts 8
4 Hits 7
3.86 ERA 5.40
Hitting
Toronto   NY Yankees
Edwin Encarnacion Player Didi Gregorius
2 Hits 3
1 RBI 1
0 HR 1
2 TB 6
.667 Avg .750
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Toronto 11 3 22 .289 11 8 8 4 0 0
NY Yankees 6 3 15 .182 15 5 4 4 0 1