Yankees lose to Jays, face Red Sox next

Red Sox-yankees in late September — as sure a thing as exists for baseball’s schedule makers. AL East powers, historic foes, duking it out for a division title. Not this time.

With Boston’s iron grip on the majors’ best record, New York is going into the rivalry’s last regular-season series with a rather mundane mantra.

Dellin Betances blew a one-run lead in the eighth inning, sending the Yankees stumbling into their mid-week set against baseball’s top team with a 3-2 loss to the visiting Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday.

The Yankees maintained a 11/2-game lead over Oakland for the top AL wild card after the A’s lost to the Tampa Bay Rays 5-4. New York has a magic number of six to clinch a playoff spot after dropping two of three to Toronto.

At St. Petersburg, Fla., Khris Davis hit a grand slam in the ninth inning but the Athletics again came up short, beaten by the Rays. Tampa Bay trails Oakland by seven games with 14 games left.

At Houston, Justin Verlander struck out 11 in seven innings and the Astros extended their AL West edge, topping the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-4.

The Astros lead Oakland by 41/2 games in the division race.

Arizona began the day four games behind in the NL West and 31/2 games back for the second NL wild-card spot.

At Atlanta, the Washington Nationals beat the Braves 6-4. Atlanta maintained a 61/2-games lead in the NL East over secondplace Philadelphia.

At Milwaukee, Jesus Aguilar and Domingo Santana hit backto-back home runs to begin the ninth inning for the Brewers, but the NL wild-card leaders couldn’t complete the rally and lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Brewers remained 21/2 games behind Chicago in the NL Central after the Cubs’ 2-1 loss to Cincinnati.