And in the National League on Sunday, the Colorado Rockies avoided a similar playoff with the Houston Astros by rallying to a dramatic 10-9 victory over the San Francisco Giants to win the wild-card slot outright.
The Los Angeles Dodgers clinched the NL West on Saturday with their 7-2 victory over the San Diego Padres.
The Angels, who beat the Oakland Athletics 8-2 on Sunday, will play Seattle in just the eighth regular-season playoff in major league history, the first since 1980. The Mariners, who held a two-game lead Saturday morning, dropped into a first-place tie by losing two games to the Texas Rangers over the weekend, 9-3 on Sunday and 9-2 on Saturday.
California and Seattle, both 78-66, will meet Monday night at the Kingdome. Mark Langston (15-6) is scheduled to pitch for the Angels against Randy Johnson (17-2).
The winner will play the Yankees in the playoffs beginning Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium.
The third-year expansion Rockies, who surpassed the 1969 New York "Miracle" Mets and the 1976 Kansas City Royals as the expansion franchise with the quickest debut in the post-season, will meet the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday night at Coors Field.
Also on Tuesday night, the Boston Red Sox travel to Cleveland to face the Indians and the Cincinnati Reds play Los Angeles at Dodger Stadium.
Yankees 6, Blue Jays 1. In Toronto, Don Mattingly made sure he'd finally make it to the playoffs, hitting a homer that helped the Yankees clinch the AL wild-card spot and their first postseason appearance since 1981.
Mattingly has played 1,785 games without reaching the postseason -- more than any active major leaguer and more than any Yankee.
Sterling Hitchcock (11-10) rewarded manager Buck Showalter's confidence by pitching the Yankees to their 12th straight win over the Blues this season.
Astros 8, Cubs 7. In Chicago, Houston, which rallied from a six-run deficit to beat the Cubs, saw its playoff hopes die 30 minutes after winning.
Houston, which went ahead on Tony Eusebio's eighth-inning sacrifice fly, entered the last day of the season a game behind Colorado in the wild-card race.
Indians 17, Royals 7. In Cleveland, the Indians closed their best season in 41 years with a resounding victory, reaching 100 victories for only the second time in franchise history Sunday. On Saturday against the Royals, Albert Belle matched Babe Ruth's record with 17 home runs in September and became the 12th major leaguer to hit 50 in a season -- the first since Detroit's Cecil Fielder hit 51 in 1990.
Orioles 4, Tigers 0. In Baltimore, Mike Mussina pitched Baltimore's fifth straight shutout, matching an American League record, and the Orioles ruined Sparky Anderson's final game as Detroit manager. Anderson is expected to resign Monday. (AP, Reuters)
(For other results, see Scorecard.)
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