By MIKE FITZPATRICK AP Baseball Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — All even atop the AL East with three games to go.
That means the division title will be determined this weekend by how the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees handle a pair of also-rans.
After both teams won at home Thursday night, the Yankees and Blue Jays remain tied for first place — and the best record in the American League — at 91-68. New York hosts last-place Baltimore beginning Friday night, while Toronto welcomes fourth-place Tampa Bay north of the border.
“I think everyone’s very locked in the way they need to be right now,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Hopefully we can keep this going.”
Regardless of results over the next three days, the Yankees and Blue Jays are both headed to the playoffs.
One will have home-field advantage throughout a best-of-three Wild Card Series starting Tuesday — very possibly against another AL East foe, the Boston Red Sox.
The other will win the division and earn a first-round bye before opening the postseason at home Oct. 4 in Game 1 of a best-of-five Division Series.
“I’ll take the bye all day long,” Boone said. “It’s winning a series, essentially, without having to play one.”
To do that, New York must finish ahead of the Blue Jays because they hold the head-to-head tiebreaker after winning the season series 8-5. So the Yankees need the Rays to trip up Toronto at least once.
“I think everybody wants to feel this pressure at the end of the season,” outfielder Daulton Varsho told reporters in Toronto, where his sixth-inning grand slam broke a scoreless tie Thursday and sent the Blue Jays to a 6-1 win over Boston. “You want to feel that because that means you’re in it.
“It’s one of those things where you either can crumble and fall and not play well, or we can be us and know that throughout the season, we’ve played really good baseball, and just keep trusting it.”
Powered by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and George Springer, the Blue Jays are in the playoffs for the fourth time in six years. But they haven’t won a postseason game since 2016 and are seeking their first division crown since 2015.
Toronto is 3-7 against Tampa Bay (77-82) this season.
Shane Bieber (3-2, 3.57 ERA) is scheduled to pitch against Rays right-hander Adrian Houser (8-4, 3.18) in the series opener. Touted prospect Trey Yesavage (0-0, 5.00) makes his third major league start for the Blue Jays versus Joe Boyle (1-3, 4.40) on Saturday afternoon, and Kevin Gausman (10-11, 3.47) opposes Tampa Bay rookie Ian Seymour (4-2, 2.85) in the season finale Sunday.
Aaron Judge and the Yankees are 6-4 against the Orioles (75-84) after taking three of four games in Baltimore last weekend.
New York slugger Giancarlo Stanton, however, said the Orioles are “always a threat.” And on Friday night, the Yankees throw rookie Will Warren (8-8, 4.35 ERA) against ace left-hander Trevor Rogers (9-2, 1.35), who fired six shutout innings of one-hit ball to beat the Bronx Bombers in his most recent outing.
“Got our work cut out for us,” Boone said. “Hopefully, get one tomorrow and go from there.”
Another rookie, Cam Schlittler (3-3, 3.27), faces Baltimore right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano (10-9, 4.54) on Saturday afternoon, and Luis Gil (4-1, 3.29) pitches for New York versus Kyle Bradish (1-1, 2.25) on Sunday.
“Can’t let one of these games slip away from us,” Yankees catcher Austin Wells said.
Toronto has dropped six of eight since a six-game winning streak, stumbling toward the finish line of a surprisingly successful season.
New York, which has won five straight and eight of nine, boasts the top record in the majors (31-14) since Aug. 6 and has made up five games on the Blue Jays since Sept. 17.
“It’s what we’re capable of, and we’ve got three more games to be the ultimate factor, and then turn the page and see what else we can do,” Stanton said.
But the defending American League champions still need to gain one more game this weekend to win their second consecutive division crown and third in four years.
“We’ve got to go out and play well, execute, and play good baseball,” Stanton said. “It’s a good preview (for the playoffs), and it’s understood what we need to do. So, you can’t look to Sunday, you can’t look to Saturday, just execute Friday.”
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