They aren’t retreating and certainly not surrendering, but the Yankees have a better chance of draining the Hudson River with a thimble than they do of winning the AL East.
Yet the party line won’t change until the Red Sox eliminate the Yankees, which could happen as early as Thursday night.
“First place is always the goal,’’ Starlin Castro said following the Yankees’ 6-1 win over the Rays in front of 30,549 at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday evening. “We can’t control what the other team does.’’
What the other team did Wednesday was beat the Blue Jays, 10-7, in Fenway Park and reduce the magic number to two. So any combination of two Red Sox victories or two Yankees losses and Boston cops its second straight AL East title.
That would send the Yankees into Tuesday night’s AL wild-card game, where they would face the Twins, who clinched the second wild card Wednesday thanks to the Angels’ loss to the White Sox.
Castro was one of three Yankees to homer in the team’s 14th win in its last 18 games. Castro and Greg Bird went back-to-back in the four-run sixth inning that included a two-run home run from Aaron Hicks.
Aaron Judge drove in the first two Yankees runs with a double in the fifth inning that hiked his RBI total to 111.
In his final start before Tuesday, Luis Severino allowed a run, four hits and fanned nine to end the regular season with a team-high 14 wins.
“Win, that’s all we can do,’’ said Bird, who homered off lefty Xavier Cedeno. “That’s what our focus is on.’’
Though Severino said he was too busy thinking about the Rays’ hitters, Bird admitted to checking the scoreboard to see what the Red Sox were doing.
“I looked at it, I almost looked right through it,’’ Bird said. “I was looking today. Somebody said the Sox were losing, then when I looked it was 9-4 [Red Sox], so I missed a lot right there.’’
The Yankees trailed 1-0 on Adeiny Hechavarria’s homer off a mistake slider by Severino leading off the fifth inning. Severino had worked out of a second and third jam in the fourth by striking out Corey Dickerson and danced around a leadoff walk to Kevin Kiermaier in the first and Brad Miller’s single to start the third.
Jacoby Ellsbury opened the fifth with a walk and Hicks’ double to right chased Ellsbury to third. After Brett Gardner lined out, Judge whistled a double toward the left-field line that scored two.
With 50 homers, Judge is going to lead the AL in that department. His 111 RBIs are six back of the Mariners’ Nelson Cruz, who leads the AL with 117.
So will manager Joe Girardi let Judge chase winning two-thirds of the Triple Crown, which would improve the rookie’s AL MVP chances?
“I think it’s important that he gets his rest if the division is decided because I have to make sure he is fresh and strong,’’ Girardi said of Judge, who has at least one extra-base hit in seven straight games. In that streak, he is hitting .476 (10-for-21) with four doubles and six homers. “If he has a chance for it, I will give him the at-bat. I am not going to take him out.’’
Judge easily would flip the script and trade the homer and RBI titles for the top spot in the East, but that train has just about run out of track.