TORONTO -- Clint Frazier bounced back from what he called “the most difficult game” of his professional career with an early homer, but Masahiro Tanaka unraveled in a shaky fifth inning as the Yankees fell to the Blue Jays, 4-3, on Tuesday evening at Rogers Centre.

Aaron Hicks cracked an eighth-inning homer off Joe Biagini, closing the deficit to a run, but the Bombers were unable to rally further while leaving 11 men on base in the first meeting of the season between the American League East rivals.

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"Just one of those nights, I think,” said DJ LeMahieu, who was doubled off second base to squelch a rally in the seventh inning. “We haven't had too many of those this year. When we had the big hits, no one was on base. Just the way it happened."

It marked just the Yanks' sixth loss in 24 games against divisional opponents, and their first back-to-back defeats since April 30-May 1 at Arizona.

Two days after booting three balls in a loss to the Red Sox, Frazier conducted a raw interview at his locker in which he stated that “everything that I’m doing offensively is kind of being forgotten about because of what I’m doing in the outfield.”

Serving as the designated hitter, Frazier offered a reminder in his second at-bat, slugging a two-run homer off starter Clayton Richard.

“It felt good,” Frazier said. “I don’t need motivation through articles that are written.”

Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who counseled Frazier about his off-field responsibilities prior to Tuesday’s game, said he was pleased to see the 24-year-old block out the noise.

“It was good to see him come out and swing the bat well, give us a lead there,” Boone said. “It was good to see him, with all that's been out there the last couple of days, to go up there and really focus on having good at-bats.”

Tanaka could not hold the lead, as Randal Grichuk hit a solo homer and Freddy Galvis put Toronto on top with a two-run shot. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. added a run-scoring single against Tanaka, who absorbed the loss after allowing four runs and six hits over six innings.

The Yankees have lost eight of Tanaka’s 12 starts this season, though the offense has managed just 21 total runs in those contests. Tanaka owns a 3.42 ERA.

“The momentum isn't on my side now, but when you go through a season, you go through these types of stretches,” Tanaka said through an interpreter. “It's important to just keep on grinding and get after it.”

Despite the loss, Boone said he was encouraged by the improvement Tanaka showed in his splitter, a pitch that has been erratic for him at times this season. Tanaka agreed that the splitter was much better than in his last start, and said the two home runs were hit off sliders that didn’t bite on their way to the plate.

“The pitch to Galvis, I think it was really flat,” Tanaka said. “It didn't come out of the hand right. Overall, I think the start was -- for the most part -- all right tonight.”

The outcome may have been different if not for a deft double play turned by Toronto in the seventh. With LeMahieu at second after a leadoff double, Gary Sanchez scorched a hard grounder to Galvis at shortstop, who flipped to Eric Sogard at second to catch the runner too far off the bag, beginning an inning-ending double play.

"I was trying to get a good secondary and the ball was hit hard,” LeMahieu said. “It kind of froze me a little bit. It was too far to get back there."

In the ninth, Luke Voit stroked a one-out single to bring Sanchez to the plate against Ken Giles -- a rematch of the showdown from May 2018, when Sanchez homered off Giles (then with the Astros), prompting the hurler to punch himself in the face as he left the field. This time, Sanchez struck out and after a walk, Gleyber Torres did the same.

“We weren’t able to score enough,” Boone said.