NEW YORK _ The ball sailed toward deep left field as Yankees fans cringed. But Brett Gardner, with two outs and the bases loaded in the ninth, crashed against the wall and snow-coned Justin Smoak's opposite-field drive, preserving a one-run victory over the Blue Jays in a back-and-forth thriller.
The Yankees hung on to beat Toronto, 7-6, Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium. In the eventful final inning and a half, the Yankees scored four runs in the eighth inning after their bullpen coughed up two runs in the top half.
Righty Blake Parker, of all people, got the save after an ineffective Dellin Betances left with one out and the bases loaded and two runs already in. But even after their third straight win, the Yankees (72-65) stayed 3{ games behind the Orioles (76-62) for the AL's second wild card. The Astros (74-64), also ahead of the Yankees, won, too.
The problem for the Yankees, even with the exciting victory, is becoming the daunting math of it all. Coming into the night, FanGraphs listed the Yankees' chances of making the postseason at 3.9 percent, and those odds didn't increase dramatically after their third straight win. On the plus side, they moved within 4 1/2 games of the first-place Blue Jays.
Still, it was an impressive night for several Yankees besides Gardner. Rookie Tyler Austin's two-run homer with two outs off Aaron Sanchez, mostly dominant to that point, gave the Bombers a 3-2 lead. But Joe Girardi, without Tyler Clippard, who had worked three straight games, tried to piece things together in the eighth and it did not go well.
Troy Tulowitzki singled off Adam Warren with two outs, and left-hander Tommy Layne walked pinch hitter Melvin Upton Jr. In came rookie right-hander Ben Heller to face Kevin Pillar, who smashed a fastball off the wall in left-center for a two-run double that made it 4-3.
Blue Jays manager John Gibbons replaced Sanchez, who allowed three runs and five hits in seven innings, with righty Jason Grilli, who came in with a 1.87 ERA in 35 appearances.
But he walked Jacoby Ellsbury and allowed a triple to Didi Gregorius that tied it at 4. Starlin Castro's sacrifice fly to right brought in Gregorius to make it 5-4. After walk to Brian McCann, who had homered in the fourth, Chase Headley's two-run homer made it 7-4.
Betances, working a third straight day, walked Jose Bautista and Josh Donaldson in the ninth and, with Edwin Encarnacion up, threw a wild pitch to move both runners. Encarnacion, who homered in the first, brought Bautista home with an infield single up the middle to make it 7-5.
Betances struck out Russell Martin but walked pinch hitter Dioner Navarro to load the bases. Upton topped one to first where Mark Teixeira, a defensive replacement for Austin, fielded the ball. Betances, however, was slow covering first and Upton him beat him for a single that made it 7-6 and loaded the bases. Betances, having thrown 40 pitches, was done, replaced by Parker, who struck out Pillar looking.
Rookie Aaron Judge has been in a horrific slump, with 26 strikeouts in his last 39 at-bats coming in, but he started the seventh-inning rally against Sanchez with a two-out single. Austin, with a .205/.222/.318 slash line in 14 games since his call-up, took a 95-mph fastball the other way into the bleachers in right-center. It was his first homer since he went deep in his debut Aug. 13.
Luis Cessa allowed two runs and six hits in 51/3 innings. He retired the first two hitters he faced before Encarnacion annihilated a 2-and-1 fastball into the second deck in left. The DH's 37th homer was the 10th homer Cessa allowed in 371/3 innings this season.
