The Yankees were eliminated from Major League Baseball playoff contention despite a 5-1 win over the Boston Red Sox on Thursday night (Friday AEST) that completed a three-game sweep of the AL East champions.
New York, who could not overcome a 9-17 start, were in the bottom of the seventh inning when Baltimore's 4-0 victory at Toronto knocked out the Yankees. A final three-game series against the Orioles won't have much significance for New York, who are four games behind Baltimore and Toronto for the AL's wild cards with three games to play.
CC Sabathia (9-12) allowed one run and four hits over a season-high 7 1/3 innings for his first win in a month. Playing his final game at Yankee Stadium, Boston's David Ortiz was honoured in a pregame ceremony, then struck out and walked. He was 0 for 10 with four strikeouts in the series.
In Pittsburgh, the Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates played a rare major league tie on Thursday night when their game was called off due to rain with scores level at 1-all in the sixth inning.
With the Cubs and Pirates not scheduled to play again this season, officials decided the game would not be made up, since its outcome will not affect post-season positioning. Chicago long ago clinched the National League Central, while Pittsburgh are out of playoff reckoning, sitting third in that division.
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So instead of becoming a suspended game, the match was declared a tie - the first since Houston and Cincinnati went seven innings on June 30, 2005, before rain halted them.
