BIRD BASHER!

TORONTO — There is no challenge this Yankees team can’t seemingly find its way through. After running out to the best record in baseball early this season against mostly teams with losing records, the challenge was to see if they could win against above .500 teams. So far, so good.

The Yankees homered four times as they hammered the Blue Jays 12-3 at the Rogers Centre Friday night.

It was their eighth straight win and their 15th out of their last 16 games. The Yankees (48-16) have the best record in baseball and continue to build their lead in the American League East. With the win, the Bombers hold a 12game lead over the Blue Jays (37-27) and 13 over the Rays, who they just swept. The Yankees improved to 23-20 against AL East opponents and have the best record in baseball against their own division.

Not even the biggest Yankees fans could have realistically predicted this at the start of the season. Even now, Aaron Boone doesn’t want to get caught up in measuring where they stand every day.

“I understand where we are. I understand the kind of start we were off to, the kind of position we’re in and I’m thrilled about that obviously,” the Yankees manager said. “We also understand as a team and as a group, we’ve done nothing yet. We’re starting another big series against a really good team and we look forward to going out and hopefully trying to get a victory. And that’s probably boring but that’s how we’re rolling.”

The Yankees are rolling to a historic start. It’s just the fourth time in franchise history the Yankees have won 48 of their first 64 games and is the fourth best start through 64 games by a major league team since 1901.

It was the 11th time this season they have hit four or more homers in a game. They had 10 all of last season, according to YES.

“It’s pretty impressive. I mean, we were winning games in a lot of different ways,” Rizzo said. “I know, it’s still early, but you want to have confidence where, you know, you can win games and to get confidence you gotta do it and to do it, you get that’s how you gain confidence. So I just think that every day we’re confident and when we lose, it’s just Alright, well, we’ll go on tomorrow. That’s been the mentality and it’s been a lot of fun.

DJ LeMahieu, Giancarlo Stanton and Anthony Rizzo each homered in the eight-run fifth inning. Joey Gallo had a two-run shot in the ninth. LeMahieu had three hits and Gleyber Torres had two doubles.

Jordan Montgomery was fine. The lefty’s command wasn’t great, but he was effective and pitched well enough and let the offense do the heavy lifting. Montgomery allowed two earned runs on three hits and a walk. He struck out five over six innings of work. He gave up an RBI-single to Gabriel Moreno in the second and a solo home run to Alejandro Kirk in the sixth.

Rizzo, who hit the walk-off home run on Thursday night, capped off the Yankees’ dizzying fifth inning with his sixth career grand slam. The 435-foot shot was his 17th home run of the season and his sixth in the last 13 games. He drove in four Friday night for 47 RBI this season and 18 RBI in his last 13 games.

The Yankees chased Ross Stripling in the fourth inning after making him throw 32 pitches in the second. The right-hander gave up the first two runs to the Yankees on five hits and two walks. He struck out three.

Torres’ first double of the night drove in LeMahieu in the fourth and then Torres scored on Kyle Higashioka’s groundout.

It wasn’t until Trent Thornton came in that the Yankees brought out the power.

The Blue Jays’ righty hit Rizzo to lead off the fifth and then gave up a two-run homer to Stanton, his 14th of the season. LeMahieu followed Stanton’s 350-foot, opposite field shot with his sixth home run of the season. LeMahieu went deep to center field, 450 feet. Torres followed with a double and scored on Joey Gallo’s double. Isaiah Kiner-Falefa singled and Rizzo smashed it open with his grand slam.

Manny Banuelos gave up an RBI “single,” to Moreno in the seventh, on a play where Kiner-Falefa’s throw went flying under Rizzo’s glove. Miguel Castro and Lucas Luetge finished up the final 1.2