NEW YORK — When they left Yankee Stadium for a cross-country flight to Oakland following a tedious 11-7 loss to the Detroit Tigers Ozzie Albies Jersey , the New York Yankees held a decent amount of comfort in the wild-card race.Now they come back still occupying the lead in the wild-card race but hardly with a comfortable lead.Heading into the opener of a three-game series with the Toronto Blue Jays Friday night at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees are 1 1/2 games ahead of the Oakland Athletics.Article continues below ...The Yankees are returning from a middling 4-5 nine-game trip through Oakland, Seattle and Minnesota. The uneven trip followed a disappointing 3-4 showing in a seven-game home stand against the Chicago White Sox and Tigers.“We know what’s at stake,” Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton said. “We know what we need to do. It’s not an ideal today or a trip. We know what we need to do. We’re going to come out on Friday and get it done.”By going 7-9 in their last 16 games, the Yankees have gone from 4 1/2 up on Oakland to hardly assured of hosting the one-game playoff on Oct. 3.Going back further, when the Yankees fell 9 1/2 out in the AL East after being swept by the Red Sox, they were 2 1/2 up and while they gained two games on the A’s, they were not able to shake their pesky challenger.While the Yankees scored enough in their last homestand at times, they did not hit well for most of the trip. They were no-hit until the eighth when Greg Bird ended Jake Odorizzi’s no-hit bid and were held to two hits in Wednesday’s 3-1 loss at Minnesota.During the trip, the Yankees scored 33 runs while batting .198 (56-for-283) while striking out 75 times. With runners in scoring position, New York batted and hit .169 (10-for-59).“We have the equipment in that room to be the club we expect to be. Baseball will punch you in the mouth every now and then,” Boone said. “We are clearly facing a little bit of adversity right now and we will be better for it. I expect us to come out Friday ready to turn the page.”Stanton, who was rested in the last home game, was 4-for-34 with 16 strikeouts on the trip. Gary Sanchez was 5-for-27 on the trip with three of those hits in a 7-2 Monday, Didi Gregorius is 3-for-15 since returning from a heel injury and Aaron Hicks went 3-for-27 on the trip.At least the Yankees can say good things may be happening on the injury front. Sanchez and Gregorius recently returned and Aaron Judge along with Aroldis Chapman appear close to returning.Judge took regular batting practice on the field before Wednesday’s game and could get into a simulated game soon. Since he fractured his right wrist on July 26, the Yankees are 25-20.Chapman has been out since Aug. 22 with tendinitis in his right knee but threw a bullpen session Wednesday in Tampa and could get into a simulated game if another bullpen session goes well.Masahiro Tanaka will start the opener and seeks his 12th win after allowing three hits and striking out 10 in eight scoreless innings last Friday in Seattle. It marked the eighth time in 10 starts he allowed two earned runs or less.Tanaka is 10-4 with a 2.86 ERA in 16 starts against Toronto, which is the only opponent he owns 10 wins against. His last appearance against the Blue Jays in New York was Sept. 29, when he fanned 15 in seven innings of a 4-0 win.The Blue Jays (65-81) didn’t help the Yankees by losing three straight at Fenway Park, lowering the Yankees magic number for elimination in the AL East to six. The Blue Jays lost for the eighth time in 12 games when second baseman Yangervis Solarte committed a fielding error in the eighth inning of Thursday’s 4-3 loss.The next loss will clinch Toronto’s second straight losing season and they head into New York hoping to see what they have in players like Rowdy Tellez and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. Gurriel homered and is hitting .284 in 55 games while Tellez is 9-for-22 (.409) in his first eight games.“(Playing at Fenway) has been good for them and when we go into Yankee Stadium that’s going to help them http://www.bravesfanproshop.com/authentic-mike-foltynewicz-jersey ,” Toronto manager John Gibbons said. “Whether they start here next year or when they make it. Next time they go in there at least play one game there. It helps. People get in awe of these places. I still do. I think that definitely helps.”Marco Estrada starts for Toronto and hopes to end a three-game winless streak. Since beating Baltimore Aug. 20, he is 0-2 with a 9.49 ERA, though he allowed two runs in six innings in a no-decision last Friday against Cleveland.Estrada is 7-3 with an 8.15 ERA in 18 appearances (17 starts) against the Yankees.The Yankees have won 12 of the first 16 meetings with Toronto and six of seven at Yankee Stadium. LOS ANGELES (AP) The NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers made another addition to their infield, acquiring power-hitting second baseman Brian Dozier from the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday for infielder Logan Forsythe and two minor leaguers shortly before the trade deadline.Dozier departed Target Field soon after the deal was done in the afternoon, aiming to take advantage of the two-hour time zone difference and was on the Dodgers’ bench by the eighth inning of a quick 2-hour, 17-minute game.Dozier was available to play but did not see action in the Dodgers’ 1-0 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.”It came down to the last minute and I knew something was probably brewing up from just hearsay, obviously,” Dozier said. ”But when I found out it was the Dodgers, it was very exciting.”The Dodgers, who went all in by acquiring Baltimore shortstop Manny Machado during the All-Star break for five prospects, had a need for an established right-handed hitter. Their lineup has been in flux, with Arizona and Colorado right on their heels.”Knowing as you get later in the season, and particularly in September when teams can start game planning and stacking their rotation a certain way, they think you have a weakness against a certain side,” Dodgers general manager Farhan Zaidi said. ”To bring in a right-handed bat that has success against lefties, we think, gives our lineup and our overall roster really good balance.”Dozier was the fifth player traded by the Twins in the last five days. Signaling the front office’s shift in focus to the future amid a disappointing season, Dozier followed starting pitcher Lance Lynn, relief pitchers Zach Duke and Ryan Pressly and infielder Eduardo Escobar out the door. The Twins received a total of 12 players in return Danny Santana Jersey , with Forsythe the only current major leaguer. For Dozier, they received outfielder Luke Raley and left-handed pitcher Devin Smeltzer.”We ultimately made some difficult decisions, some hard choices, to trade away players that we think would help us in the next few months for a great deal of talent that would help us in the future,” chief baseball officer Derek Falvey said. ”I feel good about that.”The 23-year-old Raley was hitting .275 with 17 home runs and 53 RBIs at Double-A. The 22-year-old Smeltzer was 5-5 with a 4.73 ERA at Double-A.Though the 31-year-old Dozier’s production has dropped off this year, he has 161 home runs in six seasons as a regular in the lineup. In 2016, Dozier went deep 42 times, becoming only the fourth player in major league history to hit 40 or more home runs while playing second base. Dozier is batting .224 with 16 home runs and 52 RBIs this season, with a .708 on-base-plus-slugging percentage that’s his lowest since he was a rookie in 2012.”It’s disappointing on a lot of levels, but I understand it’s a business, and I don’t like to say that, but it really is when things like this happen,” said first baseman Joe Mauer, who said he was not approached about waiving his no-trade clause.Dozier, who is making $9 million this year, will be a free agent in the fall. He was drafted in the eighth round by the Twins in 2009.”Brian’s brand here in Minnesota, I don’t know if you can get much better than that,” Twins manager Paul Molitor said. ”Everything that he’s done for the community and the way that he’s played the game, he’s set a great example for our young guys throughout http://www.bravesfanproshop.com/authentic-brandon-mccarthy-jersey , and you’re going to miss a guy like that.”After the Twins lost a team-record 103 games in 2016, the Dodgers pursued Dozier that winter but settled for Forsythe in a trade with Tampa Bay instead. The Twins went on to make the playoffs, and the Dodgers were the National League champions.”It has been going on for a couple of years,” Dozier said about the trade. ”I remember back in 2016 in the offseason all the talks and it ended up falling through. So I had heard a lot of good things about (president of baseball operations) Andrew (Friedman).”Forsythe, though, has not panned out in Los Angeles. The 31-year-old, who has played second base, third base and first base this season and took some turns at shortstop and left field in 2017, hit .218 with just eight home runs, 49 RBIs and a .639 on-base-plus-slugging percentage in 189 games with the Dodgers. Forsythe will also be a free agent in the fall.Dozier, who has never been on the disabled list and averaged 153 games played over the past five seasons, likely won’t be an everyday player with the Dodgers. Enrique Hernandez, Max Muncy and Chase Utley have also played second base, and third baseman Justin Turner is due back from injury soon to give Roberts another player who’ll figure in down the stretch.”We have a lot of good players that I feel that we still need to keep them involved, but to have him on our roster certainly makes us better,” manager Dave Roberts said, adding: ”Competition is always a good thing, but I think we do a pretty good job of keeping guys involved.”—AP Sports Writer Dave Campbell in Minneapolis contributed to this report.—