The New York Yankees defeated the Chicago White Sox 8-1 and moved into a first-place tie with the Blue Jays in the American League East after Toronto lost to the Boston Red Sox 7-1.
The Yankees trailed the Blue Jays by five games for the division lead on Sept. 16, but made up ground after Toronto lost six of its last seven games.
Toronto owns the tiebreaker over New York if the two clubs finish the season with identical records.
Aaron Judge lead the Yankees’ offensive attack, going 3-for-4 with two home runs. His 50th and 51st homers of the campaign made him the fourth player ever with 50 or more round-trippers in four different seasons.
“We’re just focused on playing our game,” Judge told YES Network’s Meredith Marakovits postgame. “I think that’s been the biggest thing.
“We can sit here and check the standings, check the records of other teams, but this is a focused group we’ve got in this clubhouse. We’ve just been trying to go out there, play our game. If we do that, we’re going to be where we want to be.”
Max Fried was lights out on the hill for the Bronx Bombers, tossing seven innings of one-run ball, which included seven strikeouts.
Fried finished his first season in New York with a 2.86 ERA and 189 strikeouts in 195 1/3 innings across 32 starts.
The Yankees are the defending AL East champs while the Blue Jays haven’t won the division since 2015.
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