NEW YORK – It’s the penultimate game of the regular season, and the Yankees’ path to an AL East title remains the same.
Keep winning, and keep putting the pressure on the Blue Jays.
The two teams have the same 92-68 record, but Toronto owns the tiebreaker over the Yanks. So, if the Jays defeat the Tampa Bay Rays at Rogers Centre on Saturday and Sunday, they’re the AL East champs.
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But that’s no easy task.
As the Yankees won their sixth straight game Friday night, blasting their way to an 8-4 win against the Orioles (and getting some excellent relief pitching by Tim Hill and Camilo Doval), the Jays hung on for a 4-2 win after encountering some ninth inning trouble.
On Saturday, the Yankees will send rookie Cam Schlittler (3-3, 3.27) to the mound against Baltimore Orioles right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano (10-9, 4.54).
Last weekend, Sugano lasted just three innings against the Yankees at Camden Yards, yielding four runs on six hits.
Sugano is 1-4 with a 5.68 ERA over his last seven starts, and Schlittler is lined up to start a potential Game 3 of a wild card series – if that’s the Yanks’ postseason fate.
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Here is the Yankees’ lineup for Saturday afternoon:
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Yankees announce Saturday afternoon lineup vs. Orioles