NEW YORK _ The curtain officially came down on the Yankees' hopes of winning the division late Saturday afternoon, which turned Sunday's final game of the regular season into nothing more than an exhibition.
Indeed, even before the Yankees' 2-1 loss to the Blue Jays at the Stadium, which gave the Yankees a final record of 91-71, pregame talk turned to Tuesday's American League wild-card game against the Twins.
The clubs will work out Monday afternoon at the Stadium, then take the same field Tuesday night when Yankees right-hander Luis Severino will be opposed by Twins right-hander Ervin Santana.
The winner heads to Cleveland to take on the top seed and defending AL champion Indians in a Division Series slated to start Thursday.
"They're similar to us in that they have a lot of young players mixed with some veterans that have quite an influence on their clubhouse," Joe Girardi said Sunday of the Twins. "They have a starting pitcher who has pitched extremely well this year like our starting pitcher. So I think it's a great matchup."
Girardi said meetings to determine the 25-man wild-card game roster, which doesn't need to be submitted until Tuesday morning, would begin in earnest Sunday night.
Girardi said "we've talked about" taking nine or 10 pitchers, though he sounded as if the Yankees had decided on the latter.
"(That) allows us to take probably 15 position players," he said.
Sunday's game was befitting the exhibition it was. There was little in the way of working the count; players swung early and often and plate umpire Kerwin Danley, a veteran, kept the strike zone appropriately expanded.
Girardi substituted liberally, getting players such as Starlin Castro, Chase Headley and Todd Frazier out after one at-bat apiece.
Yankees rookie left-hander Jordan Montgomery, making his final bid for a possible slot in a Division Series rotation should the Yankees advance that far, allowed one run and two hits over 5 1/3 innings. Blue Jays left-hander Brett Anderson, who toted a 6.04 ERA into the day, allowed three hits over five shutout innings.
The Yankees trailed 1-0 before Matt Holliday's 19th homer of the season, a solo shot off Toronto righty Danny Barnes, tied it in the seventh.
Toronto, which had two hits in finishing 76-86, pushed one across in the eighth against Domingo German to make it 2-1.
