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TORONTO — The Yankees are making their tough schedule down the stretch look like a cakewalk.

Once again, it was powered by Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, who both went deep in the Yankees’ seventh straight win Tuesday, as well as more superb work from the bullpen.

The 7-2 victory over Toronto gave the Yankees a two-game lead at the top of the AL wild-card race, thanks to the Red Sox losing in Baltimore. They now lead the surging Mariners by 2¹/₂ games and the Blue Jays by three for the second spot with just five to play, leaving the Yankees’ magic number at three to clinch a wild-card berth.

After sweeping the Red Sox at Fenway Park, the Yankees returned to Toronto for the first time since 2019 and kept rolling.

“Here, down the stretch against good clubs, you either do it or don’t,’’ Judge said. “You either bring it or don’t bring it. When the season is on the line, this team is gonna show up.”


  Giancarlo Stanton watches his three-run homer in the seventh inning of the Yankees’ 7-2 win over the Blue Jays. Getty Images Giancarlo Stanton watches his three-run homer in the seventh inning of the Yankees’ 7-2 win over the Blue Jays. Getty Images

Judge, in the lineup despite having suffered a dislocated pinky on Sunday, homered in the third inning and drove in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly in the fifth.

And as has become routine recently, Stanton added some insurance with a monster late homer, this one a three-run shot in the seventh. He’s now homered in four consecutive games in a stretch Stanton likened to his performance during his 2017 NL MVP season.

“I feel like in any big situation, he’s gonna come through,’’ Judge said.

“They’re leading the way and setting the tone,’’ manager Aaron Boone said of his two sluggers.

It came in front of 28,769, the biggest crowd of the season at Rogers Centre as a result of COVID restrictions being relaxed recently in Toronto.

Stanton said the Yankees had “the perfect amount of confidence and to keep pushing and understanding we’re down at times, [but] if there are outs left, we’ve got an opportunity to win.”

The news wasn’t all good for the Yankees, though, as Jameson Taillon left in the third inning when he re-injured the partially torn right ankle tendon that sidelined him for three weeks and now figures to shut him down even longer.

Five relievers combined to limit the Blue Jays to one run over 6 ²/₃ innings, as Michael King, Clay Holmes, Chad Green, Luis Severino and Wandy Peralta shut down the high-powered lineup.

After a slow start against left-hander Hyun Jin Ryu, who had allowed 12 runs over just 4 ¹/₃ innings in his previous two starts, the Yankees got going in the fifth.

Gio Urshela singled off Ryu with one out and DJ LeMahieu walked.

Anthony Rizzo delivered a single to drive in Urshela from second — thanks, in part, to a poor throw from Corey Dickerson, as Urshela took an awkward route to the plate.

Judge hit a sacrifice fly to right that scored LeMahieu and gave the Yankees a 3-2 lead.

They held on in the bottom of the sixth, as a wild pitch by Holmes sent Bo Bichette to second. Bichette tried to get to third when a second pitch got away from Gary Sanchez and Sanchez threw him out at third. Toronto challenged the call, but the call stood for the second out and the Yankees got out of the inning.

Stanton put the game out of reach with his two-out blast in the seventh, his 35th homer of the year.

It left the Yankees in excellent position to grab the top wild-card spot.

“I know where we are,” Boone said of the standings. “We’ve just got to keep the blinders on.”

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