Yankees hope Yogi Berra's wisdom rings true vs. Jays

Yogi Berra, the New York Yankees great who died Tuesday at the age of 90, is famous for saying (among his many Yogi-isms), "It ain't over 'til it's over."

Perhaps the current Yankees can draw inspiration from that pearl of wisdom, and do something to honour the colourful 10-time World Series champ, as they look to close the gap in the American League East and win the rubber match of their three-game series at Toronto on Wednesday night (7:07 p.m. ET).

New York (83-67) came into the series trailing Toronto (86-65) in the division race by 2½ games, and the deficit swelled to 3½ after the Blue Jays won the opener. But the Yankees rebounded to take Tuesday's night's contest 6-4 on the strength of rookie Greg Bird's three-run homer in the 10th inning.

Toronto, with the best offence in baseball and an improved pitching staff fortified by the late-season additions of ace lefty David Price (trade) and young righty Marcus Stroman (return from injury), is still the heavy favourite to win the AL East. But the Yankees, powered by the second-highest-scoring lineup in baseball, don't seem content with settling for a wild card spot, which is all but assured if they don't rally to win the division.

Bird, playing every day after first baseman Mark Teixeira was lost for the season, has homered in three consecutive games and gone deep five times in the last seven contests. He has seven RBIs in the last three games.

Carlos Beltran has homered twice and knocked in seven runs in the last four contests for New York while Edwin Encarnacion has five blasts in the past 10 games for the Blue Jays.

Pitching matchup

Yankees RH Ivan Nova (6-8, 5.11 ERA) vs. Blue Jays RH Marcus Stroman (2-0, 3.00)

Nova was removed from the starting rotation after he was battered by the Blue Jays for six runs in 1 2/3 innings on Sept. 12, but Masahiro Tanaka's injury opened the door for him to make another start. Nova has permitted at least three runs in seven consecutive starts, which includes back-to-back outings against Toronto on Aug. 8 and 14. He split a pair of decisions against the Jays, winning at Toronto with seven innings of three-run ball.

Stroman will make his third start since returning from surgery on a torn ACL sustained during spring training. The former first-round draft pick won his season debut against the Yankees on Sept. 12, allowing three runs on four hits over five innings to improve to 3-1 with a 3.18 ERA in four career starts against New York. Stroman was much sharper in his last turn against Boston, going seven innings and yielding one run on six hits.

Walk-offs

• Bird, who is riding a seven-game hitting streak, has clubbed six go-ahead homers since Aug. 19.
• Encarnacion gave Toronto three players with at least 35 homers, the first team to accomplish that since the Chicago White Sox in 2006.
• Beltran has 390 career homers, tying him for 60th on the all-time list with former Yankees third baseman Graig Nettles.