The first goal for the Toronto Blue Jays has to be for their pitchers to keep the ball in the park when the New York Yankees hit Sahlen Field for the next four nights. The next goal is to wrap up an unlikely postseason berth.
The Yankees outscored Toronto, 43-15, and hit an MLB-record 19 home runs during their three-game sweep of the Jays last week in Yankee Stadium. But the previous week in Buffalo, Toronto won two out of three games between the teams and the Yankees went deep only five times. Of course, they played that series without the injured Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. Both of them are healthy and in the lineup now (Judge, by the way, played here for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in 2015 and 2016).
When the Yankees woke up here on Sept. 9, they were just 21-21 and a half-game ahead of Baltimore for the final playoff spot. They beat the Jays that night, 7-2, to salvage the series finale and kick-start a 10-game winning streak that lasted until Sunday's 10-2 loss in Boston. The Blue Jays snapped a six-game skid with Sunday's 6-3 win in Philadelphia. New York is 31-22 while Toronto is 27-26.
The Yankees clinched a postseason berth late Sunday night thanks to Seattle's 7-4, 11-inning loss to San Diego. The Blue Jays' magic number to clinch a playoff berth is down to 4. Remember, they were 67-95 last year and finished 36 games out of first place in the AL East.
Toronto is the only current AL postseason team with a negative run differential (-27) but those stats are skewed by two huge losses to the Yankees (20-6) and Mets (18-1). So the Jays are actually plus-4 over their other 51 games this season.
Here's a look at this week's series:
On the air
All four games begin at 6:37 p.m. and are available on the YES Network. If you're an ex-pat outside of New York State hoping to get a glimpse of the ballpark, you can also check out Tuesday's game on ESPN and Thursday's game on MLB Network. Those broadcasts will be blacked out locally due to the YES telecast.
The AL playoff race
Remember how this works for 2020: The top two teams in each division automatically qualify and then there are two wild-cards among third-place teams. Eight teams in each league and the first round is best of three, pitting seeds 1/8, 2/7, 3/6 and 4/5. Seeds 1-4 host all three games in their ballpark. The AL division series are split between Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles and Petco Park in San Diego, the ALCS will be in Petco and the World Series is in Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas.
Here's the standings heading into Monday's games, with E representing East Division, C for Central, W for West and WC for wild cards. The Yankees are trying to catch Minnesota to earn home-field advantage in the first round and the Blue Jays are four games in back of them.
Toronto has a good cushion for the final slot over Seattle, Los Angeles, Baltimore and Detroit. The Blue Jays host the Orioles here in the season's final three games Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
| 1 |  TB* (E-1) | 35 | -19 | |
| 2 |  CWS* (C-1) | 34 | -19 | |
| 3 |  OAK* (W-1) | 33 | -20 | |
| 4 |  MIN* (C-2) | 33 | -22 | |
| 5 |  NYY* (E-2) | 31 | -22 | |
| 6 |  HOU (W-2) | 27 | -26 | |
| 7 |  CLE (WC) | 29 | -24 | |
| 8 |  TOR (WC) | 27 | -26 | |
| -- |  SEA | 23 | -30 | 4 |
| -- |  LAA | 23 | -31 | 4 1/2 |
| -- |  BAL | 23 | -31 | 4 1/2 |
| -- |  DET | 22 | -30 | 4 1/2 |
On the mound
The Yankees are planning a bullpen day for Monday night, perhaps with an opener followed by Michael King. The Blue Jays have similar plans, with Matt Shoemaker coming off the injured list to get the start before the bullpen follows.
The Yankees have pushed back aces Gerrit Cole and Masahiro Tanaka a day to have them set up to open the playoffs, so Cole will pitch here Tuesday and Tanaka will go Wednesday. No starter has been announced for Thursday. The Blue Jays will have Tanner Roark on the mound Tuesday and Wednesday's starter will likely be either Robbie Ray or Ross Stripling. Hyun Jin Ryu is expected to go Thursday for Toronto.
Yankee doodles
• Yankees infielder D.J. LeMahieu is batting .361 and leads Chicago's Tim Anderson by one point in the AL batting race. They finished 1-2 last year as well, with Anderson winning it, .335-.327. LeMahieu went just 3 for 11 in the three games in Buffalo but killed the Jays in New York by going 8 for 13 with four homers, nine RBIs and eight runs scored in the three-game sweep.
#Yankees IF D.J. LeMahieu named AL Player of the Week. In six games: .423/.516/1.038 with nine runs, 11 hits, four doubles, four HRs, 10 RBI and five walks. Ridiculous. Homered in all three games vs. #Bluejays.
— Mike Harrington (@ByMHarrington) September 21, 2020
"That guy is one of the best hitters I've seen in this league the last six years," Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said Sunday. "He's just a good hitter. And that's such a good team. We all know that. When they're healthy, they're one of the best teams in baseball. It's good for us to play teams like that. I knew it was going to be tough when I knew we were going to play them 10 of the last 20 games and here we go again. We've got four more with them."
• Judge since his return: 1 for 13 with six strikeouts. Stanton: 5 for 12, 1 homer, 3 RBIs.
• Cole's 11 starts: 6-3, 3.00 with 13 home runs allowed. Cole pitched in Buffalo as a Pirates farmhand with Indianapolis on May 25, 2013. He gave up two runs on three hits over six innings but was a hard-luck loser in a 2-1 game.
• Yankee starters during the 10-game winning streak: 7-0, 2.13, with opponents batting just .184.
