Yankees grab AL wildcard spot to set up Twins clash

The New York Yankees wound up with an American League wildcard spot yesterday, beating Toronto 2-1 on Aaron Judge’s 52nd home run shortly before Boston clinched the league’s East crown.

New York needed two wins and two losses by Boston to force a tiebreaker tomorrow at Yankee Stadium. Instead, the Yankees will host Minnesota in the wildcard game on Wednesday.

The wildcard winner will face Cleveland in the best-of-five AL division Series. Boston, who beat Houston about 20 minutes after the Yankees won, are set to take on the Astros in the playoffs.

Replacement starter CC Sabathia (14-5) won his fifth straight decision. With the Yankees still in contention for the division title to begin the day, manager Joe Girardi opted for Sabathia to pitch on his regular four days’ rest in place of the originally scheduled Jaime Garcia.

The veteran left-hander didn’t disappoint, allowing four hits and striking out six over 52⁄ shutout innings. The Yankees (91-70) improved to a season-high 21 games over .500.

Sabathia’s only close call came with one out in the sixth, when Ryan Goins lifted a fly to deep right which was snagged by a fan reaching over the wall.

The initial ruling on the field was interference, which was challenged and upheld after a 38-second review.

Judge hit a drive estimated at 144 metres in the fourth, the shot landing on a walkway behind the left-field bleachers.

Judge leads the AL in home runs, and tied Mickey Mantle (1956) for eighth place on the club’s singleseason list.

It was the rookie slugger’s 33rd homer at Yankee Stadium, passing Babe Ruth (1921) for the highest singleseason home total in franchise history.