The Yankees accomplished the first to-do on their list with their comeback win over the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night, clinching a postseason berth for the eighth time in nine years.
But the defending American League champions aren’t done making a late-regular-season push. Their win, coupled with the Toronto Blue Jays’ loss, moved them to within one game of the AL East leaders with five games left to play.
“Our ultimate goal is to win the division,” slugger Aaron Judge said while he and his teammates popped champagne in the Yankees’ clubhouse upon their playoff clinch. “It’s still right there for us. So we’re excited about getting in, but we got bigger things ahead of us.”
The Blue Jays have cooled down significantly after a six-game win streak just last week. On the night of Sept. 16, they opened up a five-game lead ahead of the Yankees atop the division, but have since lost five of their last six. New York has responded by taking advantage of its easy schedule, winning six of their last seven to move to within one game of the AL East lead entering Wednesday night’s action.
“We’re just doing our part,” Jose Caballero, who blooped the walk-off, game-winning single on Tuesday night to start the postseason celebrations, said. “We’re just going to keep playing game by game, and if they fall, we’re going to be right there with them.”
Not only does winning the division likely allow the Yankees to avoid a best-of-three Wild Card Series, but they could still snag the No. 1 overall seed in the American League, meaning the entirety of the postseason leading up to the World Series would run through the Bronx.
“This is just the first step, and we’re ready to keep on going,” Jazz Chisholm Jr. told YES Network. “… We’re not here just to get into the Wild Card. We’re going to win the division. We’re very close to that.”
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