Mitchell, Severino pitch Yanks past Blue Jays 2-0 for sweep

It was New York’s first sweep of a division foe since July past year against Baltimore, and its first of the Blue Jays since June 2014, also at Yankee Stadium.

And Mitchell and company made that 2-0 lead stand up.

Eight games above.500 for the first time this year, the Yankees are back within 2.5 games of the Orioles for the second wild card spot, and they’ve pulled within 3.5 games of Toronto, which is now jockeying with Boston for the division lead. “It’s been fun to see this all come together, and now we’re right back in this thing”.

Ellsbury drove a 73 miles per hour knuckleball over the right-field short porch for a two-run homer, then added an RBI single to lead the Yankees over the Toronto Blue Jays 5-3 Monday and keep NY 3 1/2 games back in the AL wild-card race.

Said Joe Girardi: “He was outstanding”. “We keep getting closer, and that’s the idea here”. That trio has helped the team to wins in four of its last five, pulling the O’s within one game of the AL East lead in the process.

“We’re right in it”.

In that respect, we got a clue of how much the Blue Jays’ manager trusts – or more to the point doesn’t – R.A. Dickey.

When asked what Mitchell’s next assignment would be, Girardi promptly responded with, “Well I would think he would start in five days”.

Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Marcus Stroman pauses during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees on Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016, in New York.

Luis Cessa started the game and pitched 5.1 innings, giving up two runs on six hits while striking out three.

Toronto’s power-packed lineup has been blanked six times this year, three by the Yankees. “I’m not too tall and I wasn’t going to be able to jump a whole lot higher”, he said.

In completing a three-game series sweep with a 2-0 win against the division leaders, the Yankees reasserted themselves as a team still fighting for a spot in the postseason. We’ve had some young guys come up and really play well.

“We’re fine. Extremely confident group of guys that we have”, Stroman said. The 29-year-old rookie replaced Brad Peacock.

“I felt like I hit it decent”.

The New York Yankees recalled right-hander Bryan Mitchell and left-hander James Pazos from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre prior to Tuesday’s game versus the visiting Toronto Blue Jays.

“Thought it might have had a chance”, Smoak said, later adding, “put a good swing on it, barreled it”.

“We needed this win”, Severino said after making his sixth scoreless relief appearance over a total of 14ª innings. It could have been worse except for a terrific diving stop, recover and throw from third by Headley against reigning AL MVP Josh Donaldson.

Tyler Clippard got the save after filling in for the over-worked Dellin Betances, who had been used in each of the previous three games.

The Cardinals failed to hit a home run in a loss against the Pirates, snapping their 25-game streak with at least one.

Switch-hitting veteran Mark Teixeira was still on the bench, and the right-handed hitting Austin isn’t far removed from a long slump.

It was New York’s first sweep of a division foe since July a year ago against Baltimore, and its first of the Blue Jays since June 2014, also at Yankee Stadium. Blue Jays LHP Francisco Liriano was unavailable Wednesday but Gibbons said he was feeling fine after having his back lock up Monday. Taylor stole second and, after Danny Espinosa’s walk, scored when an off-balance Flowers threw pinch-hitter Ben Revere’s bunt attempt well to the left of third baseman Adonis Garcia.

Betances made it interesting in the ninth, walking the first two batters while working his third straight day.

The Yankees had lost five straight home series to Toronto before winning the first two games in this three-game set.