AL East title Race Heads to Dramatic Final Weekend: Yankees Close In on Blue Jays
TORONTO – The American League East division crown will be decided in the final three games of the regular season, as the New York Yankees continue to surge and threaten to overtake the Toronto Blue Jays after a late-season push.Despite clinching a playoff berth for the fourth time in six years, fueled by stars like Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and george Springer, Toronto finds itself in a tight race and seeking its first division title since 2015.
The Blue Jays (86-73) currently hold a narrow lead, but have stumbled recently, going 3-7 against the Tampa Bay Rays this season and dropping six of their last eight games. They face a challenging weekend series against Tampa Bay, starting with a matchup between Shane Bieber (3-2, 3.57 ERA) and Rays right-hander Adrian Houser (8-4, 3.18). The series continues saturday with touted Blue Jays prospect Trey Yesavage (0-0, 5.00) making his third major league start against Joe Boyle (1-3,4.40), and concludes Sunday with Kevin Gausman (10-11, 3.47) opposing Tampa Bay rookie Ian Seymour (4-2, 2.85).
Meanwhile, the Yankees (86-73) are breathing down Toronto’s neck, having gone 6-4 against the Baltimore Orioles, including winning three of four in Baltimore last weekend. despite acknowledging the Orioles as “always a threat,” according to slugger Giancarlo Stanton, New York has been on a tear, boasting a major league-best 31-14 record since August 6th and closing a five-game gap on the Blue Jays since September 17th.
“Got our work cut out for us,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Hopefully, get one tomorrow and go from there.”
New York’s weekend schedule features rookie Will Warren (8-8, 4.35 ERA) facing Baltimore ace Trevor Rogers (9-2, 1.35) on Friday night. Rogers recently shut out the Yankees, allowing only one hit over six innings. Saturday will see rookie Cam Schlittler (3-3, 3.27) take on Baltimore right-hander tomoyuki Sugano (10-9, 4.54), and Luis Gil (4-1, 3.29) will pitch 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 emphasized.
The Yankees, aiming for their second consecutive division crown and third in four years, understand the stakes.”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. He added, “We’ve got to go out and play well, execute, and play good baseball. 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.”
Despite already securing a Wild Card spot,the Blue Jays are focused on securing the division title. The outcome of this weekend’s games will determine which team enters the postseason as the AL East champion.
