Gardner’s grab ends Yanks’ thriller vs. Jays

NEW YORK — Brett Gardner slammed into the left-field wall as he caught Justin Smoak’s bases-loaded drive, raising both hands and flipping the ball into the air as the Yankees celebrated a wild 7-6 victory over the Blue Jays on Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium.

Gardner’s highlight-reel play allowed the Yankees to escape a stressful ninth inning after Toronto scored twice on Dellin Betances, who threw a season-high 40 pitches as he worked his third consecutive game. Blake Parker recorded the final two outs to pick up his first Yankees save and the second of his career.

“That game was back and forth at the end, and some guys came through with big at-bats,” Gardner said. “Guys came through in some big spots. I was excited, man. Every game at this point is big, especially the ones you have a chance to win that you’re supposed to win. It was a big win tonight.”

New York remained 3 1/2 games back for the second American League Wild Card, but improbably closed within 4 1/2 games of the American League East lead. First-place Toronto also has Boston and Baltimore looking to knock it off the top spot. Didi Gregorius’ clutch triple, Starlin Castro’s sacrifice fly and Chase Headley’s crucial two-run homer proved to be the difference for the Yanks in a four-run eighth inning.

“We’re trying to get in the playoffs,” Headley said. “However that happens, obviously we haven’t given up on the division, but we’ve just got to continue to win games and give ourselves a chance to do either. First things first is to hopefully track down the Wild Card stuff, but if we can keep going and take the East, that would be a bonus.”

Gregorius’ booming three-base hit came off Jason Grilli and chased Jacoby Ellsbury home from first base, just one-half inning after Toronto had claimed the lead on Kevin Pillar’s two-run double off Ben Heller.

Edwin Encarnacion hit a long first-inning homer and Jose Bautista dropped a broken-bat RBI single in front of Gardner in the fifth inning. Tyler Austin celebrated his 25th birthday with a two-run homer off Aaron Sanchez, and Brian McCann also homered for the Yankees, who squeezed a solid 5 1/3 innings out of Luis Cessa.

Smoak thought he added another to the list of home runs as well, but on this night it ended up being all about Gardner.

“I feel like I hit it decent — I barreled it — thought it …

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