Most of the praise Austin Wells has received in his first month as a big-leaguer has come for his defense. But it was his bat that was his calling card through his rise to the Yankees, and it has started to get louder over the past week. Wells crushed a two-run home run off Blue Jays closer Jordan Romano in the ninth inning Tuesday night to lift the Yankees to a 2-0 win at Rogers Centre.

With his second home run in as many days — and third in his last five games — Wells provided the only source of offense in what had been a pitchers’ duel between Michael King and Kevin Gausman.

While the Yankees (80-77) are out of playoff contention, they at least for one night kept the Blue Jays (87-70) from inching closer to clinching their own postseason spot. Over his last eight games, Wells is now 8-for-29 with three home runs and three doubles after a quiet start to his big-league career at the plate. King turned in another solid start, one-hitting the Blue Jays across six shutout innings, though he tied a career-high with five walks. Gausman was even more dominant, tossing seven shutout innings while giving up three hits — including none through the first five innings.

The Yankees’ best chance to score off Gausman came in the seventh inning when a Giancarlo Stanton rocket double and an Isiah Kiner-Falefa single put runners on the corners with one out. Oswaldo Cabrera then put together a strong 10-pitch at-bat that ended with a chopper to shortstop Bo Bichette, who was playing a few steps closer than halfway on the dirt.

Stanton broke for home, but was thrown out even after Bichette had to wait on a hop and then threw a one-bouncer to the plate. Oswald Peraza, filling in at shortstop for Anthony Volpe, helped King out in the fifth inning with a tremendous play in the hole. Peraza cleanly backhanded the ground ball and then got off a strong throw to nail Alejandro Kirk in plenty of time at first.