The Toronto Blue Jays have advanced to the American League Championship Series for the first time since 2016.
The Jays defeated the Yankees 5-2 in New York on Wednesday to eliminate their division rivals in Game 4 of their divisional series.
Nathan Lukes picked up an enormous two-run single in the seventh inning to extend Toronto’s lead to 4-1, which the Jays would not relinquish this time. The Jays would add an insurance run in the eighth inning to seal the deal.
The Blue Jays have scored first in every game of the series and that streak continued with Vladimir Guerrero Jr’s RBI single in the first inning.
The Jays won the American League East Division by holding the tiebreaker over the Yankees, both finishing with a 94-68 record.
That gave the Jays the bye to the ALDS while the Yankees needed to stave off elimination twice against the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox won Game 1 of the wildecard series but New York won the next two in the best-of-three series.
Toronto will now face either Detroit or Seattle in the ALCS. The Tigers evened the best of five division series with a 9-3 victory Wednesday to set up a winner take all game Friday evening.