If the New York Yankees are to defend their American League pennant, they’ll have to take the long road to get there. The Toronto Blue Jays made sure of that.
The Blue Jays won their first AL East championship in a decade, getting a pair of home runs – including a grand slam – from catcher Alejandro Kirk and defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 13-4 to lock down the top seed in the AL playoffs.
Toronto and New York both entered Game 162 tied, but the Blue Jays held the tiebreaker and needed either a win or a Yankees loss to Baltimore to win the division. The Yankees did their part, defeating the Orioles 3-2 to put the onus on the Blue Jays and finish 94-68.
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Thanks to a four-homer barrage, the Blue Jays were up to the task and earned five days off before awaiting their assignment in the AL Division Series, beginning Oct. 4.
Their opponent very well could be the Yankees, who will have to contend with the Boston Red Sox in the best-of-three wild card series, beginning Sept. 30.
That was the all-or-nothing dynamic both teams brought into the final day of the regular season. The Yankees will have to burn lefty aces Max Fried and Carlos Rodón to get past the Red Sox, along with another top arm should the series go to three games.
And Fried will be locked in a Game 1 battle against Boston lefty Garrett Crochet, the likely Cy Young Award runner-up.
The Blue Jays? They have the option of bringing back Kevin Gausman – who started Game 162 – or newly acquired Shane Bieber in Game 1 of the ALDS.
Ah, the spoils of a division winner.
They will enjoy that position thanks to Kirk, whose first-inning grand slam broke a 1-1 tie. After the Rays battled back within 6-4, Kirk crushed a two-run homer for an 8-4 advantage. Addison Barger and George Springer’s two-run homers piled on further.
Meanwhile, the Yankees were embroiled in a standoff with the Orioles and ultimately powerless to control their fate. That’ll change Sept. 30 – just in a rivalry series they’d just as soon have no part of.