Yankees host Blue Jays, keep AL East title in sights

NEW YORK -- The American League East Division still is in play for the New York Yankees and their wait might not be as long this time.

While the Yankees are continuing their three-game series with the Toronto Blue Jays, the big scoreboard in right-center field in Yankee Stadium will be giving updates from Fenway Park.

If the Yankees get a bit of help from the Houston Astros in their game versus the Boston Red Sox and handle the Blue Jays like they did in Friday's 4-0 win, they will be one game behind with one left. New York enters its penultimate game of the regular season two games back for the first time since Aug. 3

New York opened the series by getting 15 strikeouts in seven innings from Masahiro Tanaka, two RBI from Greg Bird and Aaron Judge's 113th RBI.

Then six hours after completing the series opener, the Yankees found out they were still alive when the Astros edged Boston 3-2. On Saturday, the wait won't be as long since both games are scheduled to start at the same time.

Still the only way New York wins the division if it wins a one-game tiebreaker Monday at Yankee Stadium. First, they must get their 91st and 92 wins while the Red Sox lose their 69th and 70th games.

"We're trying to prepare and we don't know exactly what we're preparing for and we came into this week five games back with seven to go," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said after his team won for the 20th time in 28 games since Aug. 30. "We're still alive to win the division."

In order to stay alive should the Red Sox lose, the Yankees are hoping the version of Jaime Garcia is the one who struck out nine and gave up an unearned run in 5 2/3 innings Sept. 18 against Minnesota and not the pitcher who lasted 2 1/3 frames Sunday in Toronto.

Garcia is coming off his shortest start of the season after allowing five runs versus the Blue Jays. He threw 27 of 60 pitches for strikes and reaching 3-0 counts to five hitters.

"Behind in the count, didn't have good command of his sinker, at times it was cutting," Girardi said. "(It) didn't look like he had real good command of his changeup as well today."

Garcia is 5-10 with a 4.41 ERA overall and 0-3 with a 4.82 ERA in eight starts with the Yankees.

Toronto prolonged the race by getting two victories at Boston while the Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals on Monday and Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday. After dropping the series finale in Boston on Wednesday, the Blue Jays tied a club record for strikeouts in a nine-inning game by striking out 18 times (17 times swinging).

Josh Donaldson had one of Toronto's hits and is hitting .381 (24-for-63) in his last 16 games.

After Joe Biagini opened the series, Marcus Stroman (13-8, 3.06 ERA) starts and looks to reach 200 innings for the second straight season. He is three innings shy of 200 and is seven away from matching his total from last season when he was 9-10.

"That's a huge goal of mine," Stroman said earlier this month. "That's something I pride myself on. Getting to 200 is something that I really want to do.

"I think that's part of being an ace, going out there and giving your team 200-plus innings every year. It's getting harder and harder to do with all of the analytics and statistics these days. I'm trying to do everything I can to get there."

Stroman is trying to end his season with a third straight win and second in a row over the Yankees. Stroman is 2-0 with a 2.84 ERA in his last two outings and is facing the Yankees for the second time this week.

In Sunday's 9-5 win, Stroman allowed three runs and five hits in 5 2/3 innings while getting 13 ground ball outs. He is 1-1 with a 5.84 ERA in four starts against the Yankees this season and New York is hitting .306 (22-for-72) with four homers and 12 RBI off him.

Stroman is 6-3 with a 3.12 ERA in 12 starts against the Yankees. At Yankees Stadium, he is 2/3 with a 5.20 ERA in six outings.