NEW YORK – The New York Yankees won the AL East title for a first-round bye in the playoffs, dispatching the Baltimore Orioles with a 10-1 victory Thursday night behind Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Gerrit Cole.
When Cedric Mullins hit a game-ending groundout to shortstop Anthony Volpe, the Yankees came out of the dugout and formed a brief jumping huddle between the mound and second base.
New York improved to 93-66 and and will open its 59th postseason at home Oct. 5 in a best-of-five Division Series against a winner of next week’s wild-card round. The Yankees will have five days off following Sunday’s regular-season finale.
“We’ve known we had to play well here down the stretch to put ourselves in position to win the division,” manager Aaron Boone said Tuesday. “You never know what happens when you get into the tournament. It’s about peaking at those times, too.”
Judge hit his major league-leading 58th homer, going deep for the fifth straight game and increasing his RBIs total to 144, the most in the big leagues since Ryan Howard’s 146 in 2008. Stanton hit his 27th homer and had four RBIs, and Cole pitched 6 2/3 innings of two-hit ball.
New York arrived home this week needing one win to take the AL East crown but lost consecutive games to second-place Baltimore (88-71), putting the celebration on hold.
Trying to hold off AL Central champion Cleveland for home-field advantage throughout the American League playoffs, the Yankees (93-66) have a one-game lead and hold the tiebreaker over the Guardians (92-67)
“Nothing’s been easy for us this year. Shouldn’t expect it to be now. But we’ve kind of persevered and kind of grinded our way through all of it,” Boone said following a 9-7 defeat Wednesday night.
After missing the postseason last year for the first time since 2016, the Yankees won their 21st division title, including the first half of the 1981 split season.
Cole, the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner, figures to start the ALDS opener, then an off day is scheduled for Oct. 6. Carlos Rodón likely will start Game 2 on Oct. 7, and Boone would be left to decide among rookie Luis Gil, Clarke Schmidt and Marcus Stroman for Game 3 on the road Oct. 9.
Cole could return on normal four days’ rest for a potential Game 4, and Rodón would be available on regular rest if a Game 5 is needed at Yankee Stadium on Oct. 12.
After a season of spurts and slumps, New York clinched no worse than a wild-card spot Sept. 18 and celebrated with a booze-filled clubhouse bash in Seattle. The Yankees were 50-22 in mid-June, went 30-38 until early September and have won 13 of their last 19.
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