NEW YORK — The Orioles are no longer the defending American League East champions.

After winning 101 games last season on their way to their first division title in nine years, the Orioles will have to settle for a wild-card spot this season. The Yankees clinched the AL East crown with a 10-1 win over Baltimore on Thursday night, eliminating any chance of the Orioles overtaking them in the final three games of the regular season this weekend.

“It’s a good team over there,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “They played better than us the second half. We’re excited to be in the playoffs. We need to better our position. We still have some work to do. But give them credit for playing well.”

The Orioles, who clinched a playoff spot Tuesday, are instead ticketed for a wild-card spot with the chance to see the Yankees again later in October. Hyde made his first move in preparation for that postseason run in the sixth inning, when he pulled starter Corbin Burnes despite the right-hander cruising with one run allowed on only 69 pitches. The Orioles trailed 1-0 and there were several seeding implications riding on the outcome of the game, but Hyde opted to ease Burnes’ workload with Game 1 of the wild-card round five days away.

“You’re out there throwing the ball well and you’ve kind of got to look at the bigger picture,” Burnes said. “You know that we’ve got a lot of important games coming up here next week. So, we talked about it, put the plan of kind of going five and 75, in that range, and getting work in and getting prepared for the postseason. Yeah, when you’re throwing the ball that well, everything feels pretty good, you feel like you can throw every inning and just keep going. Kind of good final tune-up there and ready for the postseason.”

Despite the loss, the Orioles (88-71) still took two of three from the Yankees this week and finished 8-5 in the season series. It marked the first time they’ve finished with a winning record against New York in back-to-back years since they did so three straight seasons from 2014 to 2016.

However, the Yankees finished off the back-and-forth battle — a drama-filled clash complete with benches-clearing arguments and numerous hit by pitches — in dominant fashion. Gerrit Cole outdueled Burnes with 6 2/3 scoreless innings, holding the Orioles hitless until Ramón Urías laced a two-out single to right field with two outs in the fifth. Giancarlo Stanton provided the lone blemish on Burnes’ stat line with a solo home run in the second and he led a burst of offense for New York at the expense of the Orioles’ bullpen following their ace’s departure.

“He’s going to be on regular rest going into that first game of the wild-card [round] and he hasn’t been on regular rest for a while,” said Hyde, all but confirming Burnes will be their Game 1 starter. “And just with the amount of innings he’s pitched and the amount of starts he’s made, we just shortened him up a little bit tonight.”

Burnes, making perhaps his final regular season start in an Orioles uniform, did his part with five dominant frames. He racked up nine strikeouts for his highest total in any start since May 19 while scattering two hits and a walk. The Orioles’ prized offseason addition, acquired in a blockbuster deal with the Milwaukee Brewers in February, finishes the regular season 15-9 with a 2.92 ERA and 181 strikeouts over 32 starts and 194 1/3 innings pitched.

Yennier Cano took over for him in the sixth and the Orioles unraveled. New York put up six runs in the frame, including a three-run double by Stanton and Anthony Rizzo’s two-run single. Hyde used Cano, Cionel Pérez and Bryan Baker to get through the frame and all three finished the game with multiple runs charged against them. Baker, who was on the mound for Rizzo’s single, also allowed a two-run home run to Aaron Judge in the seventh.

Hyde then started to empty his bench to get several starters off their feet. Jackson Holliday pinch hit for Gunnar Henderson in the eighth and took over for him at shortstop, appearing at his natural position in the majors for the first time. Heston Kjerstad also replaced Anthony Santander in right field and Emmanuel Rivera pinch hit for Ramón Urías as well.

The Yankees put up one last run in the eighth off Matt Bowman, who gave up a solo home run to Alex Verdugo. After beginning his Orioles career with a 0.69 ERA over his first 12 games, Bowman allowed homers on consecutive nights to spike his ERA with Baltimore to 3.77. The Orioles avoided a shutout in the ninth, as Emmanuel Rivera’s sacrifice fly with the bases loaded put Baltimore on the board. A Cedric Mullins groundout ended the game and started New York’s celebration.

A three-game series with the Minnesota Twins is all that remains on the Orioles’ regular season schedule. Their magic number to clinch the top wild-card spot is down to one, requiring them to win only once to seal up a home playoff series at Camden Yards. Cade Povich is scheduled to pitch Friday against the team that drafted him opposite Twins right-hander Pablo López.

“We’re going to face them again,” Burnes said of the Yankees. “That’s the only way I think we’re going to get to move on is have to go through them. So, we played better baseball here this week. We’re going to go play another tough team in Minnesota looking to get in the postseason so it’s a good final tune-up for us, but it’s in front of us. We just got to go out and play our baseball. We played great against these guys in the regular season so there’s no reason why we can’t in the postseason.”