TORONTO — John Gibbons needed to give his relievers the night off. Fortunately, Marco Estrada was ready to put in some work for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Gibbons stressed on Monday afternoon that Toronto's bullpen was "strapped" and "desperate" for some help after a road trip of close games forced him to lean heavily on his relief pitchers. The Blue Jays even called up struggling right-hander Ryan Tepera from triple-A Buffalo earlier in the day for an extra arm.

But Estrada pitched eight scoreless innings, giving up three hits and striking out six with just three walks, as Toronto held off the New York Yankees 4-2 on Monday night.

"Really the exact outing we had to have, or close to it," said Gibbons after the victory. "But to be honest, I've seen him do that many a time, so I can't say he had one of his best outings, he does that a lot. He stepped up."

Estrada, who wore ice bags on his elbow and shoulder in the clubhouse after throwing 108 pitches, said he wanted to go for a complete game but that Gibbons and pitching coach Pete Walker wouldn't let him go into the ninth.

"I wanted to finish the game, but they didn't want me to get up to 120 or so," said Estrada (3-2), who hasn't recorded a complete game in his nine-year major league career. "They said that was it. But I'd like to finish one of these games one of these days.

"I'm glad I was able to give them eight innings and rest the bullpen a little bit."

The Blue Jays had to rest closer Roberto Osuna, relievers Gavin Floyd, Joe Biagini and Jesse Chavez, who all had heavy workloads over the past week. Even with Estrada pitching eight innings of shutout ball, Toronto had to call on Aaron Loup and Drew Storen to close out the ninth.

Loup started the ninth, but gave up a two-run homer, with Storen coming on to earn the save.

Shortstop Ryan Goins had a double and a home run for Toronto (27-26), while Edwin Encarnacion had a double and two runs batted in.

"For him to come out and do what he did today, it's awesome to see," said Estrada of Goins, who entered the night hitting .151 on the season. "I'm very happy for him. I know he can keep doing it every day. It's great to have him out there because his defence is so good and then he puts together some great at bats and obviously he came through big today."

Brian McCann hit a towering two-run homer to dead centre field in the ninth inning for the Yankees (24-26). Ivan Nova (3-3) gave up four runs on eight hits, while striking out four over six-plus innings. He was replaced by Nick Goody. Richard Bleier also came out of the bullpen for New York.

"Estrada has been tough on us," said Yankees manager Joe Girardi. "It's not like he did a whole lot different this time. He uses his change-up really effectively."

Encarnacion gave the Blue Jays an early lead in the first, hitting a double to left-centre field to drive in Josh Donaldson from first base.

Encarnacion added to that lead in the third inning, driving in Goins with a groundout to short. Michael Saunders followed that up with a double to deep centre field to score Jose Bautista from second base and make it 3-0.

Goins led off the fifth inning with a solo shot over the left-field wall at Rogers Centre, his third home run of the season, to give the Blue Jays a 4-0 lead.

Carlos Beltran earned a one-out walk in the ninth, with McCann launching a 2-2 pitch deep to centre field in the next at bat. Loup was pulled after the homer, with Mark Teixeira hitting a double to deep right field off of Storen.

Storen induced a pop fly by Starlin Castro then struck out Chase Headley to end the game.

Notes: Infielder Jimmy Paredes was designated for assignment to make space for Tepera. ... The 1984 Canadian Olympic baseball team was in attendance. They were the first team to represent Canada in baseball at the Games. ... Announced attendance was 32,921.

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