NEW YORK -- Yankees right-hander Jameson Taillon had a strong outing on Monday afternoon at Yankee Stadium. But he ended up on the wrong side of an 8-0 loss to the Blue Jays.

The Yankees have lost three consecutive games and seven of nine since their 13-game winning streak ended on Aug. 28, but New York (78-59) remained a half-game ahead of Boston (79-61) for the first American League Wild Card spot after the Red Sox also lost. The Blue Jays are three games behind Boston and 3 1/2 back of the Yanks.

“These are big-time games,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I want us to play well. We need to dig ourselves out of this little funk we’ve been in for a week. We get that opportunity tomorrow. … We will pull out of it tomorrow, but we need to get it going.”

Taillon pitched a season-high seven innings for the third time this year, allowing three runs on three hits and two walks while striking out five.

It looked like it was going to be a short afternoon for Taillon. In a 26-pitch first inning, he allowed back-to-back home runs to Marcus Semien and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

After that, Taillon kept Toronto scoreless for the next five innings, but he allowed his last run of the game in the seventh, when he gave up an RBI single to Lourdes Gurriel Jr.

The Yankees needed length from Taillon because the bullpen has been taxed in recent days.

“It’s definitely not the start we wanted,” Taillon said. “We put our guys in a hole. That’s a tough lineup. I honestly didn’t have my eyes set on a certain amount of pitches or innings. I was taking it one hitter at a time. I wanted to put my foot down and give us a chance to get back in the game. … With a bit of a short bullpen, to be able to go seven, it was one of the only good things to come out of today.”

The Blue Jays put the nail in the coffin in the top of the ninth inning by scoring five runs. Semien highlighted the scoring with a grand slam off right-hander Brooks Kriske.

Blue Jays left-hander Hyun Jin Ryu outpitched Taillon, throwing six scoreless innings, allowing three hits and striking out six.

“We have faced him a lot the last few years,” Boone said. “We had some success. He had some games where he had his way. He had a good changeup going today. I thought he cut the ball in well. Command is usually a strength of his as well. First and foremost, he pitched us tough. We gotta get it rolling offensively. We have to do better than that.”

During the three-game losing streak, the Yankees are 15-for-95 (.158) and 4-for-15 (.267) with runners in scoring position. That tells you the team hasn’t had many scoring opportunities.

Power hitters Joey Gallo, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton must help get their bats percolating if the Yankees want to go to the postseason in October.

“I’m not really concerned,” Boone said. “We have to get Joey going, obviously get him comfortable, get him settled. I feel like he is pressing a little bit too much. We have to get him rolling, but with Judge and Stanton, that’s going to happen for a few games. Great hitters are going to get shut down for a few games every now and then. Obviously, those three are key for us.”

First baseman Anthony Rizzo seems to think there is enough time to start another winning streak.

“When you are winning, you never think you are going to lose,” Rizzo said. “When you get into a little rut, it’s hard to get out of it. Just stay the course, go and do the routines, make sure that everyone is properly ready, check off all the boxes.

“We go to grind together and we are. It's that moment in the season. It’s September. When we get out of it, hopefully -- we’d rather struggle now than later on in the year. We have four weeks left just to get it rolling.”