Gleyber Torres had three RBI singles and the visiting New York Yankees clinched the American League East with a 5-2 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday night.
Aaron Judge was 0-for-1 with four walks to remain at 60 home runs in his pursuit of the AL record of 61 homers.
The Yankees (95-59) and the Blue Jays (87-68) have split the first two games of a three-game series. New York, which also clinched a bye in the first round of the expanded playoffs, leads Toronto by 8 1/2 games in the division.
George Springer hit a solo home run for Toronto.
Yankees right-hander Jameson Taillon (14-5) allowed two runs and seven hits, with six strikeouts, in 7 1/3 innings.
Toronto right-hander Jose Berrios (11-7) allowed five runs, nine hits and two walks while striking out seven in 5 1/3 innings.
Springer led off the home first with his 24th home run of the season. It was his ninth leadoff homer of the season and the 52nd of his career.
Kyle Higashioka (3-for-4) singled to open the third. Judge walked with one out and Anthony Rizzo and Torres hit RBI singles.
Berrios recorded his 1,000th career strikeout when Aaron Hicks was caught looking to end the top of the fourth inning.
Judge led off the fifth with a walk, took second on Rizzo’s bloop single to center and scored on Torres’ single.
Higashioka and Hicks hit consecutive one-out doubles in the sixth. Zach Pop replaced Berrios and walked Judge before giving up a two-out RBI single to Torres.
Taillon retired 10 straight batters before Springer singled with one out in the home sixth. Springer took third on Bo Bichette’s single. Bichette was out when he came off the bag on his slide into second. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit an RBI single to left and was out trying for a double.
Taillon allowed two singles in the eighth before Lou Trivino replaced him with one out and ended the inning with a double-play grounder.
Toronto’s Anthony Bass, who induced a double-play grounder to end the top of the eighth, struck out the side in the ninth.
Trivino pitched around a single in the bottom of the ninth to earn his 11th save.
–Field Level Media
