Yankees clinch playoff berth

ANAHEIM, California – Brett Gardner scored the tiebreaking run on Alex Rodriguez’s sacrifice fly in the ninth as the New York Yankees celebrated clinching their 14th playoff appearance in 15 seasons Tuesday night with a 6-5 victory over the Los Angeles Angels.

Rodriguez homered and drove in three runs before Mariano Rivera earned his 41st save for the Yankees, who were guaranteed a return to the postseason about 55 minutes before the last out in Anaheim when Oakland beat the Texas Rangers, 9-1.

The Yankees blew a 5-0 lead before rallying to win for the first time in five games this season at Angel Stadium.

Derek Jeter, Johnny Damon and their teammates are back in the postseason after staying home last fall in manager Joe Girardi’s debut campaign. The Yankees won 17 playoff series and four World Series titles in a 13-year span after 1994, but New York hasn’t won a championship since 2000 or even a playoff series since the 2004 division series, losing four straight.

These Yankees are likely to be in prime position to end that streak. They also have a six-game lead over Boston in the AL East and a 5 1/2-game edge on the Angels for homefield advantage at the new Yankee Stadium throughout the postseason.

Chone Figgins homered for the Angels, who had won four of five. Los Angeles still has a 7 1/2-game lead on the Rangers in the AL West, but its magic number stayed at six for clinching its third straight division title.

The Yankees took a five-run lead in the fifth inning after early homers from Rodriguez, Jorge Posada and Hideki Matsui, but Los Angeles chipped away with several typical small-ball rallies, tying it when Izturis drove home Howie Kendrick with a single over the drawn-in infield in the eighth.

Jeter’s fourth-inning single clinched his seventh 200-hit season, a major league record for shortstops. (AP)