The Day

Yankees fall to Blue Jays

- By MIKE FITZPATRIC­K AP Baseball Writer

New York — Jose Bautista singled off the wall and hit a sacrifice fly in what was probably his final game with Toronto, and the Blue Jays edged the playoff-bound New York Yankees 2-1 in their regular-season finale Sunday.

Matt Holliday homered for the Yankees in a tuneup for the AL wildcard game Tuesday night at home against Minnesota. The winner faces AL Central champion Cleveland in a best-of-five Division Series beginning Thursday.

New York swept a three-game series at home against the Twins from Sept. 18-20 and won the season series 4-2.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi rested several regulars, including slugger Aaron Judge, and removed a handful of others early in the game. The Yankees finished 91-71, a seven-game improvemen­t over last year and their best record since going 95-67 in 2012, the last time they won the AL East.

Toronto snapped a three-game slide and ended its disappoint­ing season 76-86 after finishing 89-73 a year ago. Coming off consecutiv­e trips to the AL Championsh­ip Series, where they lost both times, the Blue Jays never recovered from a 10-20 start.

After starter Brett Anderson threw five shutout innings, Danny Barnes (3-6) won in relief despite giving up Holliday's 19th home run. Roberto Osuna pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his 39th save, ending a game that took a swift 2 hours, 28 minites.

Toronto scratched across the tiebreakin­g run against Domingo German (0-1) in the eighth on Ryan Goins' RBI dribbler in front of home plate.

Safe at home

Eleven days after a young girl was injured by a foul ball at Yankee Stadium, New York said it plans to expand protective netting at its home ballpark and spring training complex next year. The team announced the decision during Sunday's game. Since the girl was injured Sept. 20 by a drive off the bat of Todd Frazier, several teams have announced they plan to add more netting to better protect fans.

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