TORONTO — The Yankees, Red Sox and Blue Jays might not be done fighting for the two AL wild-card spots when the regular season ends Sunday.
Heading into Tuesday, the Yankees have a one-game lead on Boston for the top wild-card position, with Toronto just a game behind the Red Sox — and two in back of the Yankees.
If the three AL East teams finish the 162-game schedule in a tie, it would set up an unprecedented scenario in the wild-card era.
According to MLB, if the three teams finish with identical records, they would be assigned A, B and C designations.
Club A would host Club B on Monday and the winner of that game would move on to the wild-card game. The loser of that first game would go on to face Club C, which would host the second play-in game, scheduled for Tuesday. That winner would advance as the second wild-card team and play the winner of the first game in the wild-card game.
That scenario doesn’t line up in the Yankees’ favor, because the seedings are based on head-to-head matchups and the Yankees lost the season series to both the Red Sox and Blue Jays — regardless of what happens in the three-game set in Toronto beginning on Tuesday.
The Red Sox would get the first pick, since they also won their season series against the Blue Jays, and would thus be Club A. The Blue Jays would get the second pick and would have to choose between being Club B (and having two chances to win one game — both on the road) or Club C (having one chance to win one game — but being home).
Assuming the Blue Jays choose Club B, that would likely leave the Yankees as Club C, with just one game to advance, while Boston and Toronto would have two games to keep their respective seasons alive.
With Jameson Taillon set to come off the 10-day IL and start Tuesday, the Yankees announced Monday that right-hander Albert Abreu was optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre following Sunday’s game. Taillon is returning from a right ankle tendon injury.
The move means Andrew Heaney remains in the bullpen, despite his ineffectiveness since arriving in a trade with the Angels in July. The left-hander doesn’t have any minor league options remaining, so he can’t be sent down without going through waivers.
Giancarlo Stanton was named AL Player of the Week after hitting four homers over the course of the week. He capped it off by going deep in back-to-back games in the final two victories over the Red Sox, with both late-inning blasts clearing the Green Monster at Fenway Park.
“If you make a mistake, you’ll be lucky if you’re only backing up bases,’’ Aaron Boone said Sunday. “He’s on that kind of roll right now.”
The Yankees head into a critical series against the Blue Jays hoping some injury scares suffered Sunday aren’t serious. Aaron Judge dislocated his left pinky diving into second base, Joey Gallo was “smoked” in his shin by an Adam Ottovino pitch, according Boone, and Gleyber Torres was “jarred” by an overenthusiastic slap from Stanton after Stanton’s homer. DJ LeMahieu, who’s been playing with hip and groin “discomfort” for weeks, said he was “good” following Sunday’s game.