Photo

Greg Bird hitting the three-run homer in the 10th inning that broke a tie for the Yankees.Credit Peter Llewellyn/USA Today Sports, via Reuters

TORONTO — No matter the moment in his nascent major league career, Greg Bird has reacted nonchalantly to whatever has been thrown at him — good or bad. It was a sign to many of his teammates that Bird, 22, has maturity uncommon in a player his age, a trait that is sure to serve him well.

But the stony facial expression vanished after Bird delivered his biggest hit of the season, a three-run, 10th-inning home run that lifted the Yankees to an exhilarating 6-4 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday at Rogers Centre.

When Bird crossed home plate — just behind two former Scranton/Wilkes-Barre teammates, pinch-runner Rico Noel and pinch-hitter Slade Heathcott — he wore a fiery grin.

When Bird was greeted at the on-deck circle and on the top steps of the dugout by his teammates, he hammered out fierce high-fives with everyone.

“His reaction when he came into the dugout was awesome,” closer Andrew Miller said. “I’m trying to keep it mentally locked in, but he comes in screaming and ripping his helmet off. That means he realizes he fits in and is an important part of this team.”

If it was a rare display of emotion by Bird, it was spent on a worthwhile cause — a game with playofflike tension and an atmosphere to match with an engaged, energetic capacity crowd and a game the Yankees desperately needed.

“I’m just comfortable playing baseball,” Bird said. “I enjoy it here. Every day matters. Winning matters. And that makes it more fun to me. I’m not saying in the minor leagues you just go through the motions, but it’s definitely a different environment here and atmosphere.”   

The victory allowed the Yankees to close to within two and a half games of the Blue Jays and keep their hopes of a division title alive entering the series finale Wednesday.

Manager Joe Girardi admitted that if they had lost, their division title hopes were all but over.

“Mathematically, you’re still in, but the way they played and us not having a chance to play them, we would have dug ourselves a pretty big hole,” he said.

The Yankees were two outs from victory when Dioner Navarro, the Blue Jays’ backup catcher, drove a fastball from Miller down the left-field line and over the wall for a solo home run that tied the score, 3-3, in the ninth.

The Blue Jays then loaded the bases before Miller struck out Josh Donaldson to send the game to extra innings. After Bird’s home run, Miller allowed a home run to Edwin Encarnacion but otherwise had an uneventful 10th inning.

The Yankees had taken a 3-2 lead in the eighth when Carlos Beltran delivered another critical home run, turning around Liam Hendriks’s 96-mile-per-hour fastball and sending it over the right-field fence.

In the bottom of the eighth, after Kevin Pillar looped a single to right and was bunted to second, Dellin Betances struck out Ben Revere but walked Donaldson and Jose Bautista to load the bases. He fell behind Encarnacion by 2-0 before stepping off the mound and collecting his thoughts. He then fired two fastballs for strikes and struck out Encarnacion on a slider in the dirt.

The Yankees not only had to survive high-wire acts by Miller and Betances, they had to overcome the continuing struggles of Alex Rodriguez in the clutch and the right arm of Bautista, the Blue Jays’ right fielder, who threw out runners at third and home with tremendous throws.

They might have survived Navarro’s homer in the ninth if they had chosen not to run on Bautista, who threw out Dustin Ackley trying to go from first to third on a seventh-inning single and Chris Young, who tried to score from third on Jacoby Ellsbury’s bases-loaded fly ball. Both of Bautista’s throws reached their target on the fly.

The Yankees might have also survived had Rodriguez been able to deliver when he came to the plate with the bases loaded in the seventh and the ninth. But Rodriguez, who struck out with the bases loaded against David Price on Monday night, struck out in the seventh and flied out in the ninth.

The Yankees were poised to take the lead in the seventh when Ackley walked with one out and Didi Gregorius laced a single to right field. Ackley, never hesitating, took off for third against Bautista, who delivered a strong throw to third — nearly too strong.

It forced Donaldson, the third baseman, to leap high, but when he snagged the ball, he pivoted and lunged to the bag, getting his glove down just as Ackley came sliding in. Greg Gibson, the umpire, ruled him safe.

But when the Blue Jays challenged the ruling, replays showed Donaldson’s glove just beating Ackley’s foot to the bag, and the call was reversed.

The Yankees, though, were not finished.

With Gregorius at second, Ellsbury — who continued to emerge from his slump with two doubles — was walked, and Brett Gardner, who was 3 for 30 on the current trip, singled off reliever Aaron Loup’s leg, loading the bases for Rodriguez.

The tension in the stadium did not last long.

Liam Hendriks blew two fastballs past Rodriguez, who then waved at and missed a slider that was off the plate.

The Yankees had jumped on Marco Estrada for two runs in the first. Ellsbury led off with a double before Brian McCann delivered a run-scoring single to the wall in right, and Beltran followed with a sacrifice fly that scored Rodriguez, who had walked. But they managed little else against Estrada, who kept the Yankees off balance with his changeup and spotted his fastball effectively.

Luis Severino allowed three hits in six innings, redeeming himself for the one bad outing he has had in his two months in the major leagues — when he was knocked out in the third by the Blue Jays on Sept. 11.

The few mistakes Severino made were dealt with harshly. Pillar drilled a fastball down the left-field line for a solo homer in the third.

After Donaldson drew a leadoff walk in the fourth, Severino survived a deep drive to right that Beltran flagged down before hitting the wall and retired Encarnacion on a groundout. But Justin Smoak followed by lining a single to right field that scored Donaldson, who had advanced to second on a wild pitch, evening the score at 2-2.