By Steve Keating
TORONTO (Reuters) – The New York Yankees were unable to clinch top spot in the American League East and Aaron Judge’s historic home run chase remained stalled on Monday as Vladimir Guerrero’s 10th inning walkoff single earned the Toronto Blue Jays a 3-2 win.
The Yankees arrived in Toronto for a three-game series needing one win to seal the AL East crown and Judge needing one homer to match the AL single-season record of 61 set in 1961 by Roger Maris.
Both the Yankees and Judge will now have to wait until Tuesday for another chance to get those jobs done after Toronto snapped New York’s winning run at seven games and extended their own to three.
“Game on the line, that’s where you want to hit, that’s why I’m doing all the work to put myself in a position to go out there and help the team out and help us get a win,” said Judge, who singled, walked twice and struck out twice.
“But I trust every single guy in our lineup, especially the guy behind me Anthony Rizzo, who day in and day out this season has come up in big spots.
“Today didn’t do it, show up tomorrow and get it done.”
While the Yankees were focused on getting top spot, the 34,000 fans in the Rogers Centre came to see some baseball history made.
Yankees outfielder Judge has been stuck on 60 for six games after moving within one of Maris’s AL record last Tuesday.
Only Maris, Judge, Babe Ruth (1927), Barry Bonds (2001), Mark McGwire (1998, 1999) and Sammy Sosa (1998, 1999, 2001) have hit 60 homers in a season.
Judge opened the game with a single to right and scored on Gleyber Torres’ sacrifice fly. He walked his second at bat and struck out on his next two trips to the plate.
The Yankees slugger would get one more shot at tying the record when the contest went to extra innings but with two out, two men on and first base open the Blue Jays issued an intentional walk to load the bases.
The gamble paid off when the next batter, Rizzo, grounded out to first.
“You don’t want to let the best guy on their team beat you,” said Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman. “You can kind of tell the atmosphere anytime he comes up people are standing up all of a sudden, everybody has their phone out.
“Obviously I don’t want to give up number 61.
“I just don’t want to be the answer to a trivia question.”
(Reporting by Steve Keating in Toronto. Editing by Peter Rutherford)
