Dan Shulman made one of the better points of the night. The Blue Jays can play with anyone, but they can’t be successful handing the opposition more opportunities. I’m paraphrasing, but that turned out to be the tone of the game tonight, as the Yankees beat the Blue Jays 5-2 to clinch the AL East.

The rollercoaster ride that has been Jose Berrios’ season looks like it is still at another low point, as the righty allowed five earned runs over 5.1 innings, despite registering his 1,000th career strikeout tonight. While the loud contact was way down, the Yankees gave him death by a thousand paper cuts, if you will, as seven of the nine hits he allowed were singles.

George Springer homered off of Yankees starter Jameson Taillon to lead off the game, but the offense struggled to produce much else until the later innings. The Yankees took a 2-1 lead in the 3rd inning, however, behind a couple of RBI singles from Anthony Rizzo and Gleyber Torres.

Rain started to figuratively pour in the top of 5th, when Rizzo skied a ball into shallow center field. Bo Bichette was racing back while George Springer was coming in from deep center. The ball hung in the air for a long time, and no one got to it. Aaron Judge, who had walked to start the inning, advanced to second, and Berrios had to deal with two on and no one out. While an error wasn’t recorded on the play, the ball was in the air for plenty of time. Torres followed the bloop single with a single of his own into center field, scoring Judge.

Bichette also recorded a throwing error in that inning, but fortunately, no runs came in to score because of it.

Berrios allowed two more runs in the 6th inning, including Torres’ third RBI single of the game. Aaron Hicks also recorded an RBI, as the Yankees led 5-1.

Toronto showed some life in the bottom of the sixth, as they strung together three consecutive hits against Taillon. While that may sound encouraging, the Jays managed only one run and two outs on the base paths. With one out, Springer fired a single into right center. Bichette “doubled” to right center field, but he lost contact with the second base bag after his slide. While he slid into second base safely, Bo’s back toes were a hair off the bag. Isaiah Kiner-Falefa smartly tagged Bichette, recording the second out.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. followed Bo’s hit with a hot shot off the left field wall, scoring Springer. However, Vladdy didn’t run full speed out of the box, and by the time he realized the ball would stay in the yard, he was out trying to stretch a long single into a double. While they may have gotten a run, those two outs on the bases could’ve been the start of a rally. Instead, they only got one run to show for it.

Not only did the Blue Jays errors assist the Yankees in extending their lead, but it also gave Buck Martinez a platform to speak on the inconsistency of the Blue Jays in the field for an entire half inning.

Toronto was able to put two on with one out in the 8th inning, but Springer grounded into a double play to end the inning. It was just that kind of night. Outside of Springer’s homer in the 1st, the only other positive was that Blue Jays pitching struck out Josh Donaldson and Giancarlo Stanton seven times between the two. I consider that a positive, not only because those are two big bats, but Donaldson seemed to take issue with Kevin Gausman not throwing him a fastball during an at-bat last night. Conveniently enough, Berrios struck Donaldson out twice…on a fastball. Nice.

The rubber match of the series will be tomorrow evening, as Mitch White will face Gerrit Cole. It’ll be the last game that the Blue Jays and Yankees will play in the regular season, with Aaron Judge still searching for his 61st home run of the season after posting an 0-for-1 night with four walks.