In the days leading to the Yankees clinching the AL East title, Aaron Boone was often asked about not letting up after the beer and champagne party ended.
Boone delivered the same message Friday, a day after the Yankees locked up their first division title in seven years.
“I am confident we will be ready to go with that urgency every day to the end,’’ Boone said before his club dropped a 4-3 decision to the Blue Jays in front of a Yankee Stadium crowd of 45,270.
It was obvious from Brett Gardner’s and Boone’s reactions to a call by home plate umpire Joe West in the ninth inning that the AL East title was nice, but not nearly enough for the Yankees to forget about posting the best record in the AL to secure home-field advantage in October.
The Yankees trailed by a run with two outs in the ninth, when West called a 3-1 pitch from Ken Giles, which was clearly outside, a strike. An irate Gardner let West know how he felt and eventually flied to center for the second out.
“I think I reacted how you would expect me to react,’’ Gardner said. “I wasn’t happy about it.’’
With the count full, Gardner lofted a routine fly to center for the second out. Giles closed out the Yankees by striking out Mike Ford, who was pinch-hitting for the frigid Clint Frazier, who was in a 4-for-28 slump and had played a fly ball to right into a Teoscar Hernandez triple in the second inning.
“It was a big spot,” Gardner said of his at-bat. “We get a baserunner against a guy that we have a decent chance to steal second base [against].”
Boone and Gardner have been very vocal about calls they haven’t liked this season and the manager didn’t let West escape the night without hearing from him.
“It’s frustrating,” Boone said. “I let my voice be heard.”
The Yankees (100-55) are 9-8 against the Blue Jays (63-91), who have won five of the past eight meetings between the teams. The loss, combined with the Astros’ win over the Angels, dropped the Yankees 1 ½ games back of Houston in the race for the AL’s best regular-season record with seven tilts remaining. Should the Yankees and Astros tie for the best record, Houston would get the home field reward because it won the season series 4-3.
While J.A. Happ looked good in 5 ¹/₃ innings Friday and Aaron Judge and Tyler Wade homered, Gleyber Torres left the game in the sixth inning with weakness in his legs. Torres had done a split fielding a ground ball on the grass in the fourth inning. He remained in the game and got two at-bats before leaving to be examined.
Asked to protect a 3-2 lead in the seventh inning, Tommy Kahnle started strong by striking out Randal Grichuk. But a walk to Hernandez was followed by Justin Smoak sending a 1-1 fastball clocked at 96-mph over the Yankees’ bullpen in right-center for a 4-3 Blue Jays lead.Cameron Maybin, pinch-hitting for Wade, opened the eighth with a single, but was caught attempting to swipe second base on a pitch DJ LeMahieu struck out on. Judge followed with a double and Didi Gregorius walked to give the Yankees a chance that died on Gio Urshela’s ground-ball out.
Should the Yankees fail to get by the Astros, they would be the second seed in the ALDS and, barring a total collapse, would play the Twins in the best-of-five, with three of those games scheduled for The Bronx.
Until that is resolved, the Yankees are backing up Boone’s promise to not let up simply because the AL East title has returned to Yankee Stadium.
Watching Gardner blister West’s plump face proved that.