NEW YORK – The New York Yankees took a day off Monday. At least, that’s how it looked.

The Yankees’ drive for a playoff spot paused, with Andy Pettitte falling behind early and a smallish crowd watching Toronto rookie Jesse Litsch pitch the Blue Jays to a 4-1 victory.

Instead, the Yankees never quite woke up in their final home game of the regular season and fell two games behind idle Boston in the AL East.

Alex Rodriguez drove in the Yankees’ lone run for his 147th RBI, albeit on a dribbler that barely rolled halfway down the first-base line. Many hitters swung at the first pitch as New York lost for just the fourth time in the last 18 games.

Twins 2, Tigers 0

DETROIT – Minnesota’s Carlos Silva shut down Detroit over 7 2-3 innings in a 2-0 victory that put the Tigers on the brink of being eliminated from the playoff race.

The defending American League champions are one loss, or a New York Yankees’ win, from officially being relegated to watching this postseason. The Tigers have lost five of their last seven games to speed up the seemingly inevitable conclusion to their season.

New York leads Detroit in the AL wild-card race by 51/2 games.

Rangers 8, Angels 7

ARLINGTON, Texas – The AL West champion Los Angeles Angels quickly lost a lead to the last-place Texas Rangers and a chance to move ahead in the other race before the playoffs.

Just after the Angels went ahead with a five-run outburst, Marlon Byrd hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth inning and Texas held on for an 8-7 victory.

Orioles 3, Royals 2

BALTIMORE – Nick Markakis hit a tiebreaking homer in the eighth inning and the Baltimore Orioles completed a season sweep of the Kansas City Royals with a 3-2 victory.

The Orioles went 7-0 against the Royals. It’s only the sixth time in club history that Baltimore swept a season series from an AL opponent.

Brewers 13, Cardinals 5

MILWAUKEE – Prince Fielder hit his NL-leading 48th home run and the Milwaukee Brewers moved within three games of first place, beating the St. Louis Cardinals 13-5.

Brewers manager Ned Yost was ejected for the second consecutive day even though his team gained a half-game on the Chicago Cubs in the NL Central. But simply winning in the final week of the season won’t be enough to save the Brewers’ fading playoff hopes.

Nationals 13, Mets 4

NEW YORK – The New York Mets squandered a chance to widen their lead in the NL East as Austin Kearns hit a three-run homer and Ronnie Belliard drove in three more in the Washington Nationals’ 13-4 victory.

New York’s magic number remained at five and its lead in the division dropped to two games over idle Philadelphia. The Mets play the Nationals again Tuesday while the Phillies host Atlanta in the opener of a three-game series.

Carlos Delgado had two hits and Moises Alou extended his club-record hitting streak to 28 games with a sixth-inning double for New York, which had won four of five. Alou also committed an error in left that allowed a run to score in the fourth.

Matt Chico (6-9) pitched into the sixth inning and Ryan Langerhans hit a three-run homer in the ninth for Washington, which did New York a favor by beating the Phillies 5-3 on Sunday. The Mets, coming off a 4-3 road trip, were looking to get off to a fast start on their season-ending, seven-game homestand but couldn’t overcome a sluggish outing by right-hander Mike Pelfrey.

The Nationals pushed across two in the fourth and three in the fifth before they chased Pelfrey (3-8) during a two-run sixth. Pelfrey was 3-0 with a 3.31 ERA in his previous three starts but struggled with his control against Washington.

He walked Ryan Zimmerman and Ryan Church with two outs in the fifth, and Kearns followed with a drive to left-center that made it 5-1. It was his 15th homer of the season.

Pelfrey issued two more walks before departing with two outs in the sixth. Joe Smith relieved and allowed Belliard’s two-run double to left-center.

Pelfrey finished with a career-high five walks, one intentional. He also hit a batter with a pitch and allowed five hits and seven runs, six earned.