TORONTO — Aaron Judge walked four times and stayed at 60 home runs, one shy of Roger Maris’ American League record, as the New York Yankees clinched the AL East title by beating the Toronto Blue Jays 5-2 Tuesday night.

The Yankees celebrated their 20th division championship, tied for second-most with the Dodgers behind Atlanta’s 21, but not home run history. New York (95-59) secured a first-round bye and home-field advantage in the Division Series.

“I’ll take four walks for a win every day,” said Judge, who scored twice.

The Yankees marked the clinching with a loud and lively party in the clubhouse.

“This is a big moment,” Judge said.

Judge lined out in his first at-bat and then drew four straight walks in his seventh straight game without a home run. He has walked 12 times in 31 plate appearances since hitting homer No. 60 against Pittsburgh last week.

All five of Judge’s plate appearances went to full counts — he saw 33 pitches, 14 strikes. His longest drought without a home run this year was nine games in mid-August.

The Yankees have eight games left in the regular season for Judge to tie or break the AL mark set by Maris in 1961.

Judge’s batting average stayed at .314 as he went 0 for 1. He began the day leading in all three AL Triple Crown categories.

Despite the loss, Toronto (87-68) maintained its place atop the AL wild-card standings.

Gleyber Torres had three hits and drove in three runs to back Jameson Taillon (14-5).

Taillon pitched 7 1/3 sharp innings, allowing two runs and five hits. He’s 4-0 in five career starts in Toronto.

Lou Trivino came on with runners at first and second and got George Springer to ground into an inning-ending double play on his first pitch.

Trivino wrapped it up in the ninth for his first save with the Yankees, and his 11th in 14 chances.

Kyle Higashioka had three hits and scored twice and Anthony Rizzo had two hits as New York won for the eighth time in nine games.

RAYS 6, GUARDIANS 5: Harold Ramirez’s two-run double with two outs in the 11th inning gave Tampa Bay a win at Cleveland, helping the Rays tighten the AL wild-card race and ending the Guardians’ seven-game winning streak.

The Rays closed within 1 1/2 games of Toronto for the wild-card lead.

TWINS 4, WHITE SOX 0: Matt Wallner hit a two-run homer, Bailey Ober had a career-high 10 strikeouts and Minnesota beat visiting Chicago.

Ober (2-3) threw a career-high 7 1/3 innings, allowing just two hits.

TIGERS 4, ROYALS 3: Harold Castro singled in the winning run with two outs in the 10th inning after tying it with a two-run single in the eighth in Detroit’s home win.

Tucker Barnhart bunted pinch-runner Ryan Kreidler to third and Anthony Misiewicz (3-2) intentionally walked pinch-hitter Eric Haase.

Riley Greene struck out, and the Royals decided to walk Javy Baez to pitch to Castro with the bases loaded. He hit a soft grounder up the middle to win it.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

CARDINALS 6, BREWERS 2: Paul Goldschmidt and St. Louis clinched the NL Central title by beating the host Milwaukee Brewers behind six strong innings from Miles Mikolas.

Andrew Knizner hit a two-run homer and Goldschmidt added two RBI as St. Louis sealed its first division crown since 2019 and fourth straight playoff berth by defeating the team that won last year’s NL Central championship. This marks the third straight year the Cardinals have wrapped up a postseason spot with a victory over the Brewers.

The Brewers remain 1 1/2 games behind Philadelphia for the final NL wild card. The Phillies won the season series with Milwaukee and would get the playoff bid if the two teams end up tied.

PIRATES 4, REDS 1: Miguel Andujar hit a tie-breaking three-run double in the seventh inning, leading Pittsburgh over visiting Cincinnati.

Andujar’s hit snapped a 1-all tie and came in his second game with the Pirates. The designated hitter was claimed off waivers from the New York Yankees on Sunday.

CUBS 2, PHILLIES 1: Marcus Stroman pitched seven innings of four-hit ball, and Yan Gomes hit a tie-breaking double in the seventh inning, lifting Chicago over visiting Philadelphia.

The Phillies’ magic number to clinch a National League playoff berth is stalled at eight after their third straight loss. The Cubs (68-86) won for the sixth time in seven games.

BRAVES 8, NATIONALS 2: Ronald Acuna Jr. hit a pair of solo home runs and visiting Atlanta won its fourth straight.

Orlando Arcia also homered and Michael Harris II had a two-run triple for the Braves.

MARLINS 6, METS 4: Carlos Carrasco had another short start, lasting just three innings as New York fell into a first-place tie in the NL East with a loss at home to Miami.

The Mets and Braves are both 97-58 with seven games left.

The teams are scheduled to play a three-game series this weekend in Atlanta, though the path of Hurricane Ian could force a postponement or relocation.

NOTES

TWINS: The Minnesota Twins’ offseason will include some substantial and noticeable changes, and not just to a roster that fell well short of its goal of winning the AL Central.

The ballpark, the team’s logos and the winter calendar will be distinctly different in 2023 — starting with the clothing on the players’ back.

“Our uniforms are going to evolve and take a step toward the future. There is always a sensitivity to paying respect to the history and the heritage of the franchise,” team president Dave St. Peter said. “But there’s also a desire to move it forward, much like we did in the mid-’80s.”

The uniforms, which are complete but won’t be revealed until after the season ends, are just the most obvious aspect of a general rebranding of the 62-year-old franchise, St. Peter said, one that will include “tweaks or in some cases, more than that” to the team’s brand identification: the lettering, the logos, the look of the team. The colors won’t change — “This franchise has embraced the base colors of red, white and blue since 1901,” when it was the Washington Senators, St. Peter pointed out — but he believes a new look is well-timed.

The team also will introduce a special City Connect uniform, a distinctive and nontraditional look that will emphasize some aspect of Minnesota culture, sometime next summer, but the team won’t wear them until 2024. City Connects have been wildly popular with fans in other cities, and the Twins hoped to include theirs next year, but MLB is staggering their introduction with just a half-dozen or so each season.

Minnie and Paul, their handshake across the Mississippi having symbolized the Twin Cities since 1961, will still be part of the franchise’s icons and will continue to loom over center field in Target Field. But that logo, too, will be “tweaked,” St. Peter said.

The team’s offseason schedule, disrupted by COVID-19, has been restored, he said, with the winter caravan across the upper Midwest planned for mid-January, the first in-person Diamond Awards banquet since 2020 set for Jan. 26, and TwinsFest to follow on Jan 27-28. The festival will be different, St. Peter said, and will only partly be staged at Target Field.

While at TwinsFest, fans will notice a few big changes at Target Field. There will be cranes on the field from November to early March, installing new scoreboards, including a huge video board in left field that is 76 % larger than the current one. The $30 million project, with costs shared by the Twins and the Minnesota Ballpark Authority, will upgrade and in most cases expand every video board in the ballpark, with some new video hardware added.

A new master-control room was added this summer in preparation for the new technology.

GUARDIANS: Cleveland was forced to postpone a celebration and flag-raising ceremony to honor its AL Central title before the opener of a three-game series against Tampa Bay due to a rainy weather forecast.

The pregame pageantry has been pushed back until Saturday before playing Kansas City – for now.

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