Judge and Gardner power Yankees past Blue Jays, 11-5

NEW YORK — Aaron Judge hit two more home runs after destroying a flat-screen television with a long drive during batting practice, and Brett Gardner also went deep twice to power the New York Yankees past the Toronto Blue Jays, 11-5, in American League baseball action Tuesday night.

Injury substitute Aaron Hicks added a two-run shot, and Masahiro Tanaka (4-1) pitched into the seventh inning to win his fourth straight start.

Matt Holliday had three hits, including an early RBI double, as the Yankees jumped to a 7-0 lead against Mat Latos and won for the 15th time in 20 games.

Steve Pearce went four-for-four with his first two homers for the Blue Jays, who had won a season-best three in a row. Latos (0-1) was ineffective in his third start for Toronto, allowing four homers and 10 hits in four innings.

Judge, the six-foot-seven mountain of a rookie, took over the majorleague lead with his 12th home run, a three-run shot to left field on the 10th pitch of his at-bat in the seventh. He went the other way for a solo shot in the third, clearing the 314-foot sign in the right-field corner by a few rows with a pop fly that left a smiling Latos shaking his head and almost laughing behind the mound.

Estimated at 337 feet, the home run was the shortest of Judge’s big league career. He came in averaging 413 feet on his long balls this year, according to Major League Baseball’s Statcast system.

It was the second time in the past five games that Judge connected twice. He has five homers in his past five games.

And when the slugger made a fine catch in right field, fans at Yankee Stadium chanted “MVP! MVP!”

Gardner led off the bottom of the first with a double and scored three times. He has four home runs this season — a pair of two-homer performances in the past four games.