So, the Yankees steered their way into the last weekend of the regular season, knowing that if the balance of power stayed the same, the Toronto Blue Jays would take a tie in the division lead and therefore would be able to have a “bye” through the first round of the playoffs.

The tiebreak rules favour Toronto as they have won the majority of the games between the two teams this season.

On the other hand, The Yankees were facing the Baltimore Orioles – the weakest team in the American League East – so going into thi Saturday afternoon game anything could happen.

Cam Schlittler would start the game on the mound for the New York Yankees whilst for Baltimore, Tomoyuki Sugano would be the starting pitcher.

The game got underway just before ten past one and Jackson Holliday led off for the Orioles, he grounded out to Jazz Chisholm Jr who tossed the ball over to Paul Goldschmidt at first to complete the out. Second out was Jordan Westburg who struck out on a foul tip. Schlittler gave a little ground in this otherwise fine opening inning when he walked Gunnar Henderson on six pitches, but he recovered getting Tyler O’Neill to pop up into foul territory, on the first base side where Goldschmidt fielded it cleanly.

The Yankees didn’t look like they were going to cause Sugano too many problems when both Trent Grisham and Ben Rice hit flyouts to leftfield which were gratefully received by Dylan Beavers.

However, a change was coming down the tracks quickly as Aaron Judge hit a flyball to left centerfield which cleared the fence and opened the scoring. 1-0.

That was Judge’s 53rd home run of the season. Imagine what he could have done if he hadn’t spent time laboured with injuries.

Fourth in the line-up for the Yankees was Cody Bellinger, who couldn’t get the measure of Sugano and was called out on strikes.

Baltimore’s performance in the top of the second didn’t improve any and Schlittler was getting more and more on top of the situation. He got Beavers to ground out to Goldschmidt running over himself to complete the out. This was followed by Jeremiah Jackson contributing to his own downfall by swinging wildiy for Schlittler to strike him out on only 4 pitches. The third out saw Colton Cowser flyout to Bellinger in leftfield.

It didn’t take the Yankees long to widen out their lead and this time it was Giancarlo Stanton with his 24th home run of the season who cleared the centerfield wall as he skied one. 2-0.

It did look as though the Yankees were going to build this win one run at a time though as Chisholm grounded out 4-3 and Goldschmidt hit a pop up to first baseman Coby Mayo. Then, and perhaps more surprisingly, the Yankees continued their string of solo home runs with Ryan McMahon hitting a four-bagger on the third pitch he faced from Sugano. Like Stanton’s this one went to centerfield. 3-0.

The struggling Anthony Volpe struck out swinging to end the second.

Schlittler was now truly dominant as Samuel Basallo struck out swinging and was followed back into the dugout by Mayo (flyout) and Holliday (lineout to left).

Every sign was that unless the Yankees hit homers, they could not build runs by any other means. In the third, Grisham hit a flyout to left as did Rice and then Judge lined out Cowser in centerfield.

In the fourth, with one out (Westburg flyout to Grisham). the Orioles finally made some impact. Handerson hit a line drive to leftfield which resulted in a double but Schlittler prevented them building on this as O’Neill lined out and Beavers struck out swinging. At least it now looked like Baltimore might get hits off Schlittler.

Sugano was also looking like he might have the measure of the Yankees. He did begin by giving up a single to Bellinger but the three outs cam easily enough afer that. Stanton was called out on strikes, Chisholm lined out to Jackson and Jackson was able to field another liner, this time from Goldschmidt

Schlittler’s pitch control seemed to go a little awry in the fifth as he hit Jackson and Mayo with pitched balls. Obviously, this is never a good sign and Jackson did seem to pick up an injury, but Schlittler was able to surround these calamities with three outs. Cowser struck out on a foul tip with Jackson on first. The out count rose to two with Basallo striking out swinging on three pitches and then with Mayo having joined the walking wounded on base, Holliday hit into a ground out.

Bottom of the 5th and more developments to report. McMahon raised his hit count on the day to two, taking a single on a line drive to rightfield. This started activity in the Baltimore bullpen and as soon as Volpe, the next batter was out, Grant Wolfram was running in toward the mound. Sugano had had a fine fourth but the Baltimore bench judged that his time was up.

Wolfram’s introduction did not improve matters – indeed it made matters much worse. He began by walking Grisham on 6 pitches and then Rice on 7, to load the bases.

It comes as no surprise to anybody that Aaron Boone was ejected from this game for arguing with home plate umpire, Ramon De Jesus, but why he wasted his energy remonstrating in a game like this when the Yankees were coasting is anybody’s guess. It also comes as no surprise that Aaron Judge collected another hit to make him 2-for-3 on the night thus far. This single to Cowser in centerfield scored McMahon and Grisham and moved Rice to second. 5-0.

This proved that the Yankees had more than one arrow in their quiver and they continued in a similar direction with Bellinger hitting a sac fly to Cowser which enabled Rice to score. 6-0.

Then there was a walk for Stanton and Chisholm was hit by pitch, which once again loaded the bases.

There was a substitution as Jose Caballero needed to come in for Chisholm, the victim of the hit-by-pitch.

However, the Yankees couldn’t turn this latest bases loaded situation to their further advantage as Goldschmidt grounded out.

With Jose Caballero taking over for the injured Chisholm at second base, the Yankees built on their dominance in the sixth, but didn’t actually increase their lead. There were two strike outs in the top of the sixth with Henderson (foul tip) and Beavers (swinging) surrendering to Schlittler. By the time of the first of those two strikeouts Westburg had aleady gone on a lineout to Grisham and after Henderson had also gone, there was a single O’Neill hit in thirection of the Yankees’ centerfielder.

In the bottom of the inning, Yaramo Hiraldo replaced Wolfram who had struggled hugely. The new pitcher was a huge improvement and the first two batters he faced (McMahon and Volpe) struck out swinging. The third out came with Grisham popping up to Westburg at third.

In the seventh, Schlittler continued to do everything he could to stop the Orioles getting anybody on base. First of all, he got Jackson to strike out swinging. Then he relied on the excellent fielding of Bellinger to take down Cowser and Basallo who both hit valueless flyballs. Baltimore, though, were now managing to deal with the Yankees’ batters more easily and the latest reliever, Carson Ragsdale was able to follow the example of Hiraldo in taking the Yankees’ batters in 1-2-3 order. First, Rice grounded out, then Judge struck out swinging and Ragsdale rounded off his handiwork by getting Bellinger to lineout to first base.

The Yankees decided that after seven innings the excellent Schlittler had done enough to take his place on the bench and they called upon Paul Blackburn to take his place. Schlittler had pitched seven innings and given no runs, on 2 hits and 1 walk. What a contrast then when Blackburn’s first pitch – to Mayo – disappeared over the left centerfield wall. 6-1.

It only took a deep breath and a moment for Blackburn to recover, but that homer must have been quite a jolt. Blackburn though pressed on. He saw Holliday called out on strikes and then Westburg ground out to McMahon who threw on to Goldschmidt. A weak pop up from Henderson to Volpe rounded off the itop of the inning and brought things to a comfortable close.

The Yankees have had virtually no joy at all at appeals and challenges in recent weeks. Part of me is inclined to put this down to the way that Boone is forever getting into the faceof the umpire(s) – and here again was more of the same. After Stanton had hit a single, he was lifted for pinch-runner Jasson Dominguez. it wasn’t too long before Dominguez had taken off for second base, and found himself adjudged to be out on the throw that the catcher Basallo made to the second baseman Holliday. Once again, the appeal. Once again the call on the field upheld. With Dominguez back on the bench it only remained for Caballero to flyout and Goldschmidt to strike out swinging.

This meant that the Orioles needed five runs to square things and had only the three outs of the top of the ninth to achieve that goal. With Blackburn still on the mound, first it was O’Neill’s 5-3 flyout that marked up the first out and then that difficult beginning to his evening’s activity was forgotten and forgiven with Blackburn striking out both Beavers and Jackson.

So, the game rolled to its conclusion at 6-1, but up north in Toronto, another rookie Trey Yesavage was able to match Schlittler’s performance almost blow-for-blow as he dominated Tampa Bay and led the Blue Jays to a 5-1 win.

Only one game to go and the evidence was the confidence on the Yankees’ side of matters was ebbing away. See you tomorrow.