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TORONTO -- As if Jordan Montgomery and the bullpen did not pitch well enough in shutting out the Toronto Blue Jays, the New York Yankees hitters got into the act Saturday afternoon with a four-homer eighth inning. Brett Gardner, Matt Holliday, Starlin Castro and Didi Gregorius all homered in the eighth to cap a 7-0 victory over the Blue Jays.
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The four home runs in the eighth -- all against Jason Grilli -- were the most ever allowed in one inning by a Blue Jays reliever.
"It's pretty impressive, a lot of fun to be a part of," Gardner said.
"It's pretty unusual," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "You're probably not going to see that very often."
It was the first four-homer inning for the Yankees since Oct. 1, 2012, against the Boston Red Sox.
Montgomery (3-4) allowed three hits and three walks over six innings. The left-hander struck out five for the Yankees, who have won two of the first three of the four-game series.
"The curve was my best pitch today," Montgomery said. "I got it for strikes and then expanded the zone a little bit and got them to swing over it. I just kind of slowed everything down and started making pitches."
The Blue Jays (27-29) were held to three hits and five walks by four Yankees pitchers.
Toronto right-hander Joe Biagini (1-4) pitched a career-high seven innings in his sixth career start, allowing four hits, one walk and three runs (one earned) while striking out six.
"He was great, against a good hitting team," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "The error early in the game might have cost him another 10 or 15 pitches, otherwise there's no telling how far he goes. He has slowly turned into a pretty darn good starter."
The Yankees (32-21) scored two unearned runs in the third inning. Shortstop Troy Tulowitzki booted a grounder by Rob Refsnyder, who stole second and scored on a bloop double by Aaron Hicks that bit the right-field line. It was the 11th RBI in the past seven games for Hicks.
Aaron Judge followed by lining a double to center.
"There are a couple of things that I need to make adjustments on, like my cutter on the hit with Judge," Biagini said. "I just haven't been finishing it very well. I've been a little bit frustrated with that because last year it was one of my go-to pitches."
Hicks and Judge each extended their hitting streaks to seven games with the doubles.
Biagini retired 10 batters in a row until Castro led off the seventh with a bloop double to left. Gregorius followed with another bloop double near the left-field line and the Yankees led 3-0.
"It's impressive," Girardi said. "We're getting it from all spots in the lineup, which is really nice. When you get the production we got today, the home runs, the doubles, you're going to score runs."
Adam Warren replaced Montgomery for the seventh inning and pitched around a one-out walk to pinch hitter Ezequiel Carrera.
"I thought Monty threw the ball really, really well," Gardner said. "We're going to need him to continue to do that if we want to get where we want to go to. He gets a lot of awkward swings and misses. I think guys have a hard time picking up especially his off-speed stuff. It's a lot of fun for us to play behind him and watch him continue to get better."
Grilli replaced Biagini in the eighth and allowed Gardner's 12th homer to lead off the inning and Holliday's 12th with two out followed by Castro's ninth and Gregorius' fourth. He was replaced by J.P. Howell.
"(Grilli) has been pitching pretty well lately and our guys down in the 'pen are running on fumes right now," Gibbons said. "We really can't keep this pace up, especially when you've got seven guys down there. Today was one of those days. Going into the game there were guys we had to stay away from, unless we had the lead or were tied. I don't hang anybody out to dry. It's hard simply because I like the guy so much, everybody does. That's never easy for a manager or a coach."
Tyler Clippard pitched a perfect eighth and Dellin Betances pitched around a walk in the ninth for the Yankees.
NOTES: Toronto C Russell Martin missed his third straight game Saturday because of a neck issue but said he hopes to return to the lineup Sunday. ... Toronto INF Darwin Barney started in left field Saturday, his first start in the outfield this season. He was 0-for-2 before being removed for pinch hitter Ezequiel Carrera in the seventh. ... Yankees 1B Greg Bird (right ankle bruise) was 2-for-4 with a double, three walks and one RBI in the first two games of his rehabilitation assignment with Class A Tampa. ... Toronto RHP Marcus Stroman (6-2, 3.28 ERA) faces New York RHP Luis Severino (4-2, 2.93 ERA) Sunday in the finale of the four-game series.
