Tanaka in control as Yankees top Blue Jays

Masahiro Tanaka gave up three hits over eight-plus innings, Brett Gardner had an RBI double and the visiting New York Yankees defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 1-0 on Sunday afternoon.

The teams split the four-game series with the Blue Jays winning the middle two games.

Tanaka (8-6) allowed no walks and struck out four.

Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman replaced Tanaka after Brandon Drury led off the bottom of the ninth with a single. Chapman induced a double-play grounder to shortstop from pinch hitter Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on a 3-2 pitch before Bo Bichette singled. Chapman then struck out Cavan Biggio to earn his 31st save.

Blue Jays starter Trent Thornton (4-8) allowed one run on three hits over six innings, with one walk and six strikeouts.

Thornton was perfect for four innings. Gio Urshela, who ended the bottom of the fourth with diving catch of Randal Grichuk's line drive to third base, led off the top of the fifth with a double to center. Gardner followed with an RBI ground-rule double to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead.

The Yankees loaded the bases in the sixth with one out on DJ LeMahieu's walk, Aaron Judge's infield hit and Gary Sanchez's hit by pitch. The inning ended, however, when Justin Smoak started a first-to-home-to-first double play on Urshela's grounder.

Sam Gaviglio replaced Thornton and tossed a perfect seventh and pitched around singles in the eighth and ninth.

The Blue Jays had only two base runners through the first seven innings. Bichette led off the first with an infield hit and was erased trying to steal second. Smoak was safe at first on LeMahieu's error on a grounder to second in the second inning.

Smoak led off the bottom of the eighth with a single. Teoscar Hernandez's grounder forced Smoak at second and Derek Fisher's grounder to second started an inning-ending double play.

The Yankees had Gleyber Torres back in the lineup Sunday. He started at shortstop after missing the first three games of the series with core issues.

The Blue Jays selected the contract of right-hander Neil Ramirez Sunday and optioned right-hander Jason Adam to Triple-A Buffalo. Ramirez was signed to a minor-league contract after being released by the Cleveland Indians. Left-hander Ryan Borucki was transferred to the 60-day injured list.

--Field Level Media