Ben Rice homered twice, including a tie-breaking solo shot in the eighth inning, and the New York Yankees beat the visiting Baltimore Orioles 3-2 on Sunday in the regular-season finale for both teams.
The Yankees (94-68) ended the season with a season-high eight-game winning streak, matching their win total from last season and winning for the 11th time in 12 games.
New York entered the day tied with the Toronto Blue Jays atop the American League East, but the Blue Jays held the tiebreaker between the teams by winning eight of 13 head-to-head meetings. Toronto beat the Tampa Bay Rays at home, 13-4, to claim the division title and earn a bye until the Division Series round.
That leaves the Yankees to host Game 1 of a best-of-three wild-card series vs. the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday night.
Rice snapped a 2-2 tie when he drove a 2-2 fastball from Rico Garcia (0-2) into the visiting bullpen beyond the left-center field fence.
Rice also homered in the first inning off Baltimore starter Kyle Bradish, notching his third career multi-homer game and second this season, both against the Orioles.
Giancarlo Stanton hit a game-tying single in the fourth inning for the Yankees, who trailed the division by 6 1/2 games on Aug. 23 before finishing the season with 25 wins in their final 33 games to pull into a tie.
Aaron Judge hit a leadoff single in the fifth, scored on Stanton’s hit and finished with a MLB-best .331 average. He won New York’s first batting title since Bernie Williams in 1998.
New York’s Luis Gil allowed two runs on three hits in five innings. Gil struck out two and walked two.
Four relievers followed Gil and combined to throw four scoreless innings. Devin Williams (4-6) got three straight outs in the eighth after allowing a leadoff single and David Bednar stranded a runner at second by getting two strikeouts for his 27th save and his 10th with New York.
Jordan Westburg and Gunnar Henderson hit back-to-back homers in the fourth as the Orioles (75-87) finished with their first losing season since 2021. Baltimore finished 60-59 under interim manager Tony Mansolino after starting out 15-28 under Brandon Hyde.
Bradish, who made six starts after returning from Tommy John surgery on his elbow, allowed two runs on five hits in four innings. The right-hander struck out eight and walked none.
