TORONTO -- Aaron Sanchez threw a curve at the New York Yankees.

He threw a few of them, actually.

The Toronto Blue Jays right-hander has had some problems with left-handed hitters this season and he figured a curveball could be the solution. He figured right,

Sanchez (5-1) held the Yankees to seven hits and two walks while striking out six over 6 2/3 innings to win his fourth consecutive decision and the Blue Jays defeated the Yankees 7-0 Wednesday night to sweep a three-game series.

"Obviously the numbers show that my splits against lefties were not that good," Sanchez said. "Going into the game I felt that was the pitch that was going to neutralize them and I did a really good of that all night I felt like."

"I can't think of any games where he's really struggled much, as I've said over the last month he just keeps getting better and better," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "The curveball was big for him. He didn't have the changeup early and late in the game he threw some good changeups."

Edwin Encarnacion and Justin Smoak each had two-run singles in a five-run seventh inning when the Blue Jays broke open a 2-0 game.

Darwin Barney had three singles and a walk, helping the Blue Jays (29-26) move three games above .500 for the first time this season with their first series sweep of the season. The Yankees (24-28) dropped to 2-4 to open a 10-game road trip and have lost six of their last eight games since reaching .500 last Tuesday.

Yankees right-hander Masahiro Tanaka (3-1) allowed seven hits, one walk and two runs (one earned) in six innings. He struck out two.

"They made him work really hard in those six innings but I thought he managed the game pretty good," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "We weren't able to do anything off Sanchez. We had some opportunities but we weren't able to score. When you have tour chances, you've got to be able to cash in and we haven't been able to do it lately."

"Obviously I didn't have my best stuff today," Tanaka said through a translator. "I was in some tough spots but I was able to grind through and keep the damage to a minimum."

Jacoby Ellsbury and Carlos Beltran collected two hits apiece for New York.

"As a unit, we obviously haven't scored the number of runs we expected to score," Yankees left fielder Brett Gardner said. "It's definitely very frustrating, coming back to where we were three or four weeks ago."

The Blue Jays scored single runs in the fifth and sixth innings.

Barney led off the fifth with a single, took second on Jose Bautista's groundout to third and scored on Josh Donaldson's single to right. Donaldson was thrown out between first and second.

The Blue Jays added an unearned run in the next inning. Michael Saunders led off with a double and took third when center fielder Ellsbury dropped Smoak's fly ball for an error.

Saunders scored on Russell Martin's double-play grounder to second.

The Yankees threatened with one out in the seventh when Ronald Torreyes and Ellsbury singled.

After Gardner flied out to left, right-hander Jason Grilli replaced Sanchez to face Beltran.

Grilli, acquired Tuesday in a trade with the Atlanta Braves, threw the ball into center for an error on a pickoff attempt at second, and Torreyes took third. Beltran flied out to center to end the inning.

"To have that kind of a adrenalin rush again, I live and thrive off that," Grilli said. "I came into a situation where a guy has pitched a stellar game and gave us a great performance tonight. Anytime you have inherited runners it's nice to slam that door. I didn't want to create a big situation obviously, even with the experience, the adrenalin was definitely flowing and luckily it didn't hurt us in the end."

In the bottom of the seventh, Kevin Pillar led off with a single against right-hander Kirby Yates and stole second and Barney followed with a walk.

Bautista popped out to first. Donaldson walked to load the bases. Encarnacion hit a two-run single to center, and Toronto led 4-0. Right-hander Nick Goody replaced Yates and gave up an RBI double to Saunders.

Smoak hit a two-run single to stretch the lead to 7-0.

Left-hander Aaron Loup pitched the eighth and right-hander Ryan Tepera handled the ninth for the Blue Jays.

NOTES: The Blue Jays traded INF/OF Jimmy Paredes to the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday for cash considerations or a player to be named. Paredes was designated for assignment on Monday when RHP Ryan Tepera was recalled from Triple-A Buffalo. Paredes was claimed off waivers on May 16 from the Baltimore Orioles. ... LHP Chad Girodo was optioned to Buffalo on Wednesday to make room for RHP Jason Grilli, who was acquired in a trade from the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday. ... Yankees struggling DH Alex Rodriguez returned to the lineup after not playing in the first two games of the series. ... The Blue Jays have Thursday off before RHP Marcus Stroman (5-1, 4.46 ERA) faces Red Sox LHP David Price (7-1, 5.11) in the opener of a three-game series in Boston. ... Yankees RHP Michael Pineda (2-6, 6.92) faces Tigers LHP Matt Boyd (0-0, 2.79) on Thursday in a makeup game in Detroit.