The Yankees did their job. The Rays did not.
And so the Yankees will head into the penultimate day of the regular season still needing some help if they are actually going to come all the way back to leapfrog the Blue Jays for the AL East title and a bye into the ALDS.
For now, they continued to take care of their own business, with Giancarlo Stanton clobbering a pair of two-run homers and Aaron Judge adding another to fuel an 8-4 win over the Orioles on Friday night in The Bronx.
The win kept the Yankees (92-68) tied atop the division with the Blue Jays, who beat the Rays in Toronto.
But the Blue Jays own the tiebreaker courtesy of their 8-5 record against the Yankees this season, meaning Aaron Boone’s club still has a game to make up to claim the AL East.
The Blue Jays could clinch the division as early as Saturday with a win and a Yankees loss.
But at least for one more night, the Yankees remained in the race thanks to Stanton (five RBIs) and Judge, who homered in the same game for the 58th time, the eighth-most all-time by a pair of teammates.
If the Yankees can get this version of the Bash Brothers in October?
Well, that might just change the equation.