Josh Donaldson

celebrates after hitting one of Toronto’s five home runs in an 11-5 rout of the Yankees at Yankee Stadium.

New York — Russell Martin homered twice and drove in four runs against his former team, and the Toronto Blue Jays went deep five times to beat the New York Yankees 11-5 Friday night in the opener of their weekend showdown for first place in the AL East.

Josh Donaldson and Justin Smoak each hit a two-run shot in a five-run first inning to build a big lead for David Price. Edwin Encarnacion added a titanic drive after the Blue Jays chased rookie starter Luis Severino in the third.

Seeking its first playoff appearance in 22 years, Toronto increased its division lead to 2 1/2 games over New York. The teams play a rare single-admission doubleheader at Yankee Stadium on Saturday to make up Thursday night's rainout. The four-game series concludes Sunday.

A vocal contingent of Toronto fans made themselves heard all night, with Yankees supporters attempting to drown out chants of "Let's go Blue Jays!" after the crowd of 40,220 had dwindled considerably by the eighth inning.

Didi Gregorius hit a three-run homer and knocked in four for the Yankees, who have a comfortable lead in the wild-card race to fall back on. But they want to win the AL East and avoid the win-or-go-home scenario of a wild-card game.

Handed an 8-1 cushion, Price (155) lasted only five innings because he needed 96 pitches to get that far. The ace left-hander struck out seven and improved to 6-1 since the Blue Jays acquired him in a July 30 trade with Detroit.

He has defeated the Yankees twice in three starts since then and has not permitted more than three runs in any of his seven outings with Toronto.