Yankees clinch AL East, finish job after ‘keeping their blinders on’ during long stretch of bad baseball

TORONTO — The Yankees went from making an early run at setting a record for wins to threatening to blow the biggest lead ever. Their 15 ½-game cushion in July shrunk to 3 ½ by early September. Half the team was hurt and fans were panicking.

This was a major crisis.

BUY YANKEES TICKETS: STUBHUB, VIVID SEATS, TICKETSMARTER, TICKETMASTER

During a low point in their August swoon, the Yankees’ worst month in more than two decades, manager Aaron Boone deficiently slammed his hand on a table during a post-game interview while adamantly insisting things would turn.

Boone was right. Riding on Aaron Judge’s back while getting a lot of good pitching and some of their main cogs healthy, the Yankees got back to winning consistently and went on to accomplish one of their big goals.

For the first time in four years, the Yankees are American League East champions.

The Yankees clinched the division title on Tuesday night at Rogers Centre with a 5-2 win over second-place Toronto Blue Jays, their eighth in nine games and 16th in 21 following brutal 18-31 stretch.

“I think our guys did a really good job of never really getting too emotional or overwhelmed,” Boone said. “I think they did a really nice job of weathering the storm and keeping their blinders on and just keep working and having a confidence that was going to turn. I think we all certainly shared in that.

“As we talk about all the time, we know adversity is coming for us in different shapes throughout the year. And we certainly faced our share there for a good stretch, especially in the month of August, but part of being a good big-league team and good big-league players is you’ve got to be able to deal with those kinds of things. And I don’t think our group ever lost any confidence. Certainly there are days for me personally where it was frustrating. But there was always that belief that we’ll get through this.”

They’re through it and back in the postseason for the sixth year in a row, and coming with that division crown is a bye through the best-of-three Wild Card Series because they’re assured of having one of the two best records in the AL.

The clincher was a hodgepodge of the Yankees at their best minus a homer from their big guy. Judge has been stuck on 60 since for seven games and still needs two to break Roger Maris’ American League record, but he scored twice going 0-for-1 with four walks.

Shouldering the biggest load on this night was right-hander Jameson Taillon, who overcame allowing a leadoff homer in the first to George Springer that put the Yankees in an early hole to turn in a high-quality 7 1/3-inning, two-run outing.

The 10-hit offensive attack was led by Gleyber Torres, who continued his recent surge with a three-hit, three-RBI night.

Aaron Hicks, resurgent of late during his limited opportunities, contributed an RBI double and threw a runner out at second base from left field to kill a sixth-inning Blue Jays rally.

Down 1-0, the Yankees took scored twice to pull ahead 2-1 on RBI singles by Anthony Rizzo and Torres, then they padded the lead scoring one in the fifth and two in the sixth, making it a 5-1 ballgame.

That was enough offense the way Taillon and reliever Lou Trivino were pitching.

With one pitch, Trivino came on in the eighth to get a double-play grounder with the tying run at the plate, then the righty went back out and worked a scoreless ninth to save it and ignite a mild on-field celebration that turned into a visiting clubhouse champagne-spraying party.

NOTABLE

— Judge’s seven-game homerless drought is his second-longest of the season. He went nine games without a homer from Aug. 13 to Aug. 21.

— Judge has started 47 games in a row and may be rested in Wednesday’s series finale. That would leave him with seven games to get two homers to pass Maris, the first three at home this weekend against the Orioles.

— Giancarlo Stanton was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, leaving him 1-for-16 with 10 strikeouts in his last four games and hitting .133 with 46 Ks in 105 ABs over his last 30 games.

Want to bet on MLB?

See the latest World Series odds

LOOKING AHEAD

Wednesday: Yankees at Blue Jays, 7:07 p.m., YES. RHP Gerrit Cole (12-7, 3.49) vs. RHP Mitch White (1-6, 5.12).

Thursday: Off day.

Friday: Orioles at Yankees, 7:05 p.m., Amazon Prime. TBA vs. RHP Domingo German (2-3, 3.30).

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting us with a subscription.

Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com.

©2022 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit nj.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.