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Rays win AL East title; Yankees have to settle for Wild Card

With the Yankees losing to the Boston Red Sox 8-4, Sunday, it opened the door for the Tampa Bay Rays to take advantage and capture the division title away from the World Champions.

The Rays were down 2-0 to the Kansas City Royals before coming back to tie the game on Carlos Pena's double in the ninth. After Jeff Neiman struck out the side in the 11th, Kelly Shoppach reached on an error to drive in Rocco Baldelli with the winning run.

The Rays celebrated their AL East clinching day later...

Where does this put the Yankees? The Yankees are now the wild card and will head to Minnesota for the start of the division series starting Wednesday. Last season, the Yankees beat the Twins in four games in the division series en route to title number 27.

This time it will be a new season. The Twins may be missing Justin Morneau,again, but they have the second best record in the AL, and will get a chance to play the Yankees in their brand new stadium to start the series.

The Twins have gotten great performances all year from the likes of Jon Rauch who closed games in the first half of the year for the Twins when they lost Joe Nathan for the season, and former Yankee Carl Pavano has been great for the Twinkies this season.

The Yankees enter October in a big slump. They have lost two in a row, and lost 17 of their last 25. Pitching has been a concern. Andy Pettitte hasn't really been himself since returning from a groin injury. Phil Hughes has logged in a ton of innings, and A.J. Burnett and Javier Vasquez have been putrid. Even Derek Jeter had a big slump during the month of September.

The best thing about the Yankees right now is C.C. Sabathia and his 21 wins. They will need him to get win number 22 Wednesday if they want to get their season turned around in the right direction.

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