YANKEES 6

BLUE JAYS 3

TORONTO – Opening Day. All-Star Game. Yankees clinch the AL East.

Every year, Major League Baseball celebrates that trifecta, and possibly tonight, the Yankees will bathe each other in a beer/champagne cocktail to mark their ninth straight AL East crown.

Last night at Rogers Centre, the Yankees took a step closer to being champions with 6-3 victory over the Blue Jays in front of 30,793.

Combined with the secondplace Red Sox losing to the Twins, the Yankees’ victory reduced their magic number to one. Either a Yankees victory tonight or a Red Sox loss will give the Yankees the title.

Bobby Abreu’s two-run homer to center off Justin Speier in the seventh inning broke a 3-3 tie and made a winner out of Jeff Karstens. Derek Jeter opened the frame with a single off Jason Frasor’s ankle, and Speier replaced Frasor to serve Abreu’s homer.

Hideki Matsui added a solo homer in the eighth. Jorge Posada homered leading off the second and Melky Cabrera drove in two runs.

One night after Darrell Rasner (3-0) notched a victory with a six-inning effort long on guts, Karstens gave Joe Torre’s fatigued bullpen 61/3 innings and improved to 2-1. Karstens allowed three runs and 10 hits.

Sean Henn, another pitching product of the Yankees’ minor league system, gets a chance tonight to match Rasner and Karstens.

Jason Giambi, who complained before the game that the left wrist wasn’t feeling great, departed in the sixth inning with what was described as mild soreness in the hinge. Giambi talked about taking a third cortisone shot since Aug. 31 if the problem didn’t improve with ice treatments. Giambi went 0-for-2 and is in a 6-for-48 (.125) slide.

Jeter was hit in the right hand in the first inning. He remained in the game and didn’t have a problem throwing, but after Abreu’s homer, Jeter used his left hand for congratulatory fist bumps.