NEW YORK -- The New York Yankees continue doing what they have to do -- beating up on lesser teams like the Chicago White Sox -- while a few hundred miles north, the Toronto Blue Jays continue to do what it seems as if they can't stop doing it.
So while the Yankees did their job, beating the feeble White Sox, 6-1, to take three games out of this four-game series, they actually move closer to elimination for the AL East title, as the Blue Jays beat the Tampa Bay Rays on a walkoff home run by Josh Donaldson. The Jays' magic number to clinch the division is now down to four, while the Yankees' magic number to clinch a wild-card berth is down to three.
Severino does OK: The Yankees got six scoreless innings out of rookie Luis Severino. Although he allowed just five hits, Severino was hit solidly at times but was helped immensely by three double plays. Severino's stuff was less lights-out than usual; he struck out only two and needed 99 pitches to get through six.
Butterfingers: White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu cost his team a first-inning run when presented with back-to-back 3-6-3 double play grounders by Brett Gardner and Carlos Beltran. He booted both of them, loading the bases for the Yankees with none out (Jacoby Ellsbury led off with a walk). But the Yankees came away with just one run on Brian McCann's sacrifice fly. Greg Bird followed with a strikeout, and right fielder J.B. Shuck made an excellent running catch of Dustin Ackley's drive to deep right-center.
Left hanging: The Yankees had runners on first and third with none out in the third, and the bases loaded with two out in the same inning. They failed to score. They had runners on first and second with one out in the fourth, and second and third with two out in the same inning. They failed to score. And when they loaded the bases twice in the sixth following Ackley's solo home run, they managed only to score once -- on a passed ball. Beginning to detect a pattern here? Starting to figure out the reason why they had scored just eight runs in their first 32 innings against the nine-games-under-.500 Chisox? RISP failures -- they were 3-for-17 on Sunday and 7-for-37 in the series and 0-for-13 before Alex Rodriguez' infield hit that failed to drive in a run -- continue to follow this club right to the final week of the season.
Late life: The Yankees gave themselves breathing room with five runs in the last three innings off the Chisox bullpen, on Ackley's home run, the passed ball, RBI singles by Ellsbury and Bird and a sac fly by Slade Heathcott.
Over 50 million sold: Sunday's paid attendance of 38,690 -- honestly, it looked like less -- drove the Yankees' 2015 attendance over the 3 million mark for the 17th consecutive season.
Next: The final home series of the regular season is against the Boston Red Sox, which probably looked like a really dramatic way to end the season back in April but is just a time-killer now. Ivan Nova (6-9, 4.87) opens the four-game set against LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (9-6, 3.97), first pitch at 7:05 p.m. (YES). The Yankees rotation for rest of the series is to be determined, as manager Joe Girardi tries to line up his pitching for the postseason and awaits the status of Masahiro Tanaka. The Red Sox will throw RHP Rick Porcello on Tuesday, LHP Wade Miley on Wednesday and LHP Rich Hill on Thursday, all games at 7:05 p.m.
