Rookie Jesse Litsch allowed five hits over seven-and-two-third innings to lead the Toronto Blue Jays to a 4-1 victory over New York on Monday in the Yankees' final home game of the season.
New York still moved closer to a postseason, though, when Detroit lost 2-0 to Minnesota on Monday night. The Yankees will clinch a playoff berth with one more win or a Detroit loss. New York fell two games behind idle Boston in the American League East. The loss was the Yankees' fourth in their last 18 games.
This was a makeup from an April 25 rainout and there were only about 12,000 people in the seats when the game started. Officially, there were 23,567 fans in Yankee Stadium by the end.
PHOTO: AP
Because all 53,281 tickets were sold, this counted as the Yankees' 50th sellout of the year. That brought their season attendance to a record 4,271,356, breaking last year's mark of 4,243,780.
Litsch (7-9), who had lost to the Yankees twice this season, started in place of A.J. Burnett, who left the Blue Jays for a day on what they described as "personal business."
Twins 2, Tigers 0
At Detroit, Carlos Silva shut down Detroit over seven-and-two-third innings in a loss that put the Tigers on the brink of being eliminated from the playoff race.
The defending American League champions are one loss, or a New York Yankees' win, from officially being relegated to watching this postseason. The Tigers, who have lost five of their last seven games, trail New York in the AL wild-card race by five-and-a-half games.
Nick Punto's RBI single in the second inning and Jason Kubel's run-scoring single in the ninth was all the offense for Minnesota, which has won five of seven. The Twins had lost seven in a row against the Tigers.
Silva (13-14) gave up six hits without a walk and struck out one.
Rangers 8, Angels 7
At Arlington, Texas, Marlon Byrd hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth inning and Texas held on for the victory over Los Angeles.
The AL West champion Angels remained at 92 victories, the same as Boston and Cleveland, the other division leaders who were off on Monday.
A day after clinching their third division title in four years in their home finale, the Angels had trouble with Rangers right-hander Armando Galarraga in his first major league start.
Los Angeles didn't get a hit until Maicer Izturis singled in the fifth. The Angels then scored five runs within a span of six batters to take the lead and chase Galarraga.
Byrd's 10th homer came after Gerald Laird's leadoff triple off Ervin Santana (7-14) and made it 6-5. Travis Metcalf and Nelson Cruz had RBI singles in the consecutive innings after that to put the Rangers up 8-5.
Orioles 3, Royals 2
At Baltimore, Nick Markakis hit a tiebreaking homer in the eighth inning and Baltimore completed a season sweep of Kansas City.
The Orioles went 7-0 against the Royals. It's only the sixth time in club history that Baltimore swept a season series from an AL opponent.
The game was a makeup of a rainout on April 15. The announced attendance was 15,769, but there were no more than a few thousand fans in the stands.
Markakis hit his 22nd homer on an 0-1 pitch from Gil Meche (9-13), who allowed seven hits in his first complete game of the season.
Prince Fielder hit his league-leading 48th home run and Milwaukee moved within three games of first place in the NL Central with a 13-5 victory over St. Louis on Monday night.
Brewers manager Ned Yost was ejected for the second consecutive day even though his team gained a half-game on Chicago, who was off Monday, in the division. Chicago's magic number -- the combination of Cubs wins and Brewers losses needed to clinch the division title -- remained at four.
Milwaukee scored four runs off starter Adam Wainwright (13-12) before he got his first out of the game. The four-run first included a three-run homer by Fielder.
Milwaukee added five runs in the fifth and three in the sixth, including a a two-run homer by rookie Ryan Braun, his 33rd.
Brewers starter Dave Bush (12-10) gave up five runs in six-and-two-third innings.
Albert Pujols, who had missed five straight starts because of a strained left calf muscle, started and went 0-for-3 with a walk.
Yost was ejected in the top of the seventh after he left the dugout to argue with plate umpire Phil Cuzzi after he called Rick Ankiel safe at home on a two-run single by Ryan Ludwick that made the score 12-5.
Nationals 13, Mets 4
At New York, Austin Kearns hit a three-run homer and Ronnie Belliard drove in three runs to lead Washington past New York.
New York's magic number to clinch the NL East remained at five and its lead in the division dropped to two games over idle Philadelphia.
Carlos Delgado had two hits and Moises Alou extended his club-record hitting streak to 28 games with a sixth-inning double for New York, which had won four of five.
Matt Chico (6-9) pitched into the sixth inning and Ryan Langerhans hit a three-run homer in the ninth for Washington.
Giants 9, Padres 4
At San Francisco, Omar Vizquel drove in a season-high four runs to help Barry Zito end a six-start winless stretch and San Francisco beat San Diego, knocking the Padres from sole possession of first place in the National League wild-card standings.
San Diego and Philadelphia are tied for the wild-card lead, with Colorado a game back. The Padres are three games behind NL West leader Arizona, which has a magic number of four to clinch the division crown.
Earlier on Monday, the Padres learned they will be without left fielder Milton Bradley for the rest of the year because of a knee injury that will require surgery, and center fielder Mike Cameron for at least the remainder of the regular season with a partially torn ligament in his right thumb.
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