AL East race between Blue Jays, Yankees comes down to final weekend of season

All even atop the AL East with three games to go.

That means the division title will be determined this weekend by how the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees handle a pair of also-rans.

After both teams won at home Thursday night, the Yankees and Blue Jays remain tied for first place — and the best record in the American League — at 91-68. New York hosts last-place Baltimore beginning Friday night, while Toronto welcomes fourth-place Tampa Bay to the Rogers Centre.

"I think everyone's very locked in the way they need to be right now," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. "Hopefully we can keep this going."

Regardless of results over the next three days, the Yankees and Blue Jays are both headed to the playoffs.

One will have home-field advantage throughout a best-of-three Wild Card Series starting Tuesday — very possibly against another AL East foe, the Boston Red Sox.

The other will win the division and earn a first-round bye before opening the postseason at home Oct. 4 in Game 1 of a best-of-five Division Series.

"I'll take the bye all day long," Boone said. "It's winning a series, essentially, without having to play one."

To do that, New York must finish ahead of the Blue Jays because they hold the head-to-head tiebreaker after winning the season series 8-5. So the Yankees need the Rays to trip up Toronto at least once.

"I think everybody wants to feel this pressure at the end of the season," outfielder Daulton Varsho told reporters in Toronto, where his sixth-inning grand slam broke a scoreless tie Thursday and sent the Blue Jays to a 6-1 win over Boston. "You want to feel that because that means you're in it.

"It's one of those things where you either can crumble and fall and not play well, or we can be us and know