Yankees catcher Jorge Posada, (20) gets a hand on home plate umpire Jim Joyce as Yankees' Johnny Damon, second from left, has words with Blue Jays catcher Rod Barajas in the eighth inning on Tuesday in New York. (Kathy Willens/Associated Press)

The Toronto Blue Jays hit five home runs in New York on Tuesday to beat the Yankees 10-4, but it was the fireworks in the eighth inning that the game might best be remembered for.

The Blue Jays had the game well in hand with a 9-2 lead when the benches and bullpens cleared in the bottom of the eighth following Toronto reliever Jesse Carlson's pitch behind Jorge Posada.

The pitch was taken by Posada to be a message following balls that hit Aaron Hill in the top of that inning and Encarnacion in the sixth.

Carlson and Posada exchanged words and both benches received warnings from the home plate umpire but the situation ended without incident.

That is, until Posada crossed the plate on Brett Gardner's double to make it 9-3. He and Carlson, who was covering home plate, made contact and exchanged words before engaging in some fisticuffs that once again brought both teams into a melee near home plate.

"As he ran past Carlson, he gave him a little shove with his elbow. It was very unsportsmanlike," plate umpire Jim Joyce told reporters. "It was a cheap shot."

Yankees manager Joe Girardi ended up with a bruise and a cut on his head after being caught in the middle of the fracas and Carlson emerged with a red bump on his forehead.

"Once he crossed the plate and threw that elbow at me or whatever, I just said, 'Let's go,"' Carlson said. "I'm probably the smallest guy in MLB and we were right near their dugout, so I was just hoping I got out of there all right."

Joyce decided to eject Posada and Carlson and warned both teams and their pitchers that no further funny stuff would be tolerated.

"He was just right there on the line to the dugout. We got carried away and hopefully that's the end of it," Posada said. "I don't want my kids to see that. … Fight in the middle of the field, benches clearing — that's a bad example."

Carlson declined to apologize and said he didn't throw at Posada intentionally.

"It was a fastball in and I yanked it. Just a bad pitch," he said.

Blue Jays jump on Mitre, again

The rough stuff came after the game was decided by two home runs from Travis Snider, and one apiece from Adam Lind and Edwin Encarnacion that chased Yankees' starter Sergio Mitre after five innings.

Mitre (3-3) must shudder every time he sees his schedule in the New York Yankees rotation match up with a game against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Already responsible for Mitre's two losses of this season heading into Tuesday's game, the Blue Jays tagged the starter with his third, soliciting seven runs off eight hits.

Toronto ace Roy Halladay worked six innings, giving up both Yankees runs off 11 hits and struck out six for his 15th win of the season.

After soliciting a pair of hits from Halladay in the first but not cashing them in, the Yankees got something to stick in the second. Jorge Posada led off with a single, Nick Swisher's double pushed him to third and a Brett Gardner single plated the Yankees catcher.

Swisher came home on a Jeter single for an early 2-0 lead, but they didn't get to enjoy it for long.

Snider sends a pair to the second deck

A two-run bomb to the second deck of right field by Snider evened things up.

Adam Lind was the next to homer off Mitre, his 30th of the year, which glanced off the top of the wall and over to put Toronto up 3-2.

A defensive gem kept the lead for Halladay in the bottom of the inning. Toronto outfielder Jose Bautista gunned down Alex Rodriguez from right field as he headed home from third on a Hideki Matsui single.

Rod Barajas swallowed up the throw and quickly stretched to cover the plate to intercept a sliding Rodriguez.

Edwin Encarnacion led off the fourth by taking Mitre deep once again to make it 4-2 and Snider gave Mitre a repeat performance of his second-deck shot of the previous inning to push the lead to three.

Mitre's night was over following a Rod Barajas double that scored Lyle Overbay and put the Toronto catcher and Encarnacion in scoring position with no outs.

Encarnacion slid home on a Marco Scutaro sacrifice fly before the inning was over.

The Blue Jays third baseman added another RBI with a single that scored Lind in the seventh inning and Vernon Wells added another RBI single in the eighth to complete the rout.

After Carlson and Posada were tossed, Jeremy Accardo subbed in for one hitter before Toronto's Scott Downs was summoned with the bases loaded. Downs didn't disappoint, defusing the situation with a ground-out to end the inning.

Bautista added a solo shot in the ninth to make it five Blue Jays home runs on the evening while Brandon League surrendered a triple and a run to Mark Teixeira before the game came to a merciful end.

With files from the Associated Press