Yankees secure AL East title with rout of Orioles, inch closer to top seed
The Yankees’ long (two-day) national (tri-state area) nightmare is over.
After whiffing in their first two chances to secure the division, they have finally won the American League East.
The road back to the top of the division took much longer, following last year’s abysmal fourth-place finish that was billed as a “disaster” by Brian Cashman, but the Yankees officially climbed all the way back to the top of the AL East with a 10-1 win over the Orioles on Thursday night in The Bronx.
In Game 159, with a party-like atmosphere from the 42,022 in attendance, the Yankees (93-66) nailed down the division by extending their lead over the Orioles (88-71) to five games.
Doing so ensured their chase for the franchise’s 28th championship — and first since 2009 — will begin in the ALDS next Saturday at the Stadium against the winner of a wild-card round series.
“It took us long enough,” a champagne-drenched Aaron Judge said in a raucous Yankees clubhouse after crushing his 58th home run in another monster season. “This team was hungry. It goes back to not making the playoffs last year. That was just enough fuel for this team to go out and say hey, we gotta make some changes, we gotta do better.”
The Yankees’ next box to check off during their last regular-season series against the Pirates this weekend is wrapping up the top seed in the AL for home-field advantage through the ALCS, which they can do with a combination of two wins or Guardians losses.
But first they were soaking up the division clincher that came together with Gerrit Cole spinning another gem, Judge homering in his fifth straight game and Giancarlo Stanton getting a head start on his playoff mastery with four RBIs on a home run and double.
“It means a lot,” manager Aaron Boone said. “I feel like we’ve been through a lot as a team already this year, so I’d like to think we’re battle-tested for what’s ahead. But really excited for these guys that have persevered through a lot of moments in the season. So a long way to go, but I know we’ll enjoy this right now.”
The Yankees arrived home from a West Coast trip earlier this week needing just one win over the Orioles to officially dethrone the 2023 division champs.
The teams had spent most of the season neck-and-neck atop the AL East before the Yankees gained some separation over the last two weeks, hoping they were rounding into form at the right time.
But the Orioles made them wait a bit longer to celebrate by winning the first two games of the series — in what could be a preview of the ALDS — which Boone said added some pressure going into Thursday’s finale.
“We have a ton of respect for Baltimore,” Cole said. “That’s a real good-ass club over there. So you’re not stupid if you picked them [to win the division]. Certainly we believed we were going to do it in this room.”
In his final tune-up before Game 1 of the ALDS, Cole looked dominant for a second straight start.
He twirled 6 ²/₃ shutout innings, allowing just two singles and a walk while striking out five, tipping his cap as he walked off the mound to a standing ovation in the seventh.
It was a fitting way to win the division after the Yankees season began without Cole, the reigning AL Cy Young winner who was on the injured list for the first two and a half months with an elbow injury.
But the ace looked primed for the postseason on Thursday, out-dueling Orioles ace Corbin Burnes, who allowed only Stanton’s solo home run across five innings.
The Yankees blew the game open in the sixth against the Orioles bullpen, with Austin Wells drawing a bases-loaded walk before Stanton smoked a three-run double to the gap to make it 5-0.
Anthony Rizzo added a two-run single to cap the rally before Judge went deep for a two-run moonshot in the seventh to get the party started early.
“Nothing is ever guaranteed, especially playing here,” Judge said. “My first year as a rookie in ’17, one game away from the World Series, you kind of expect that every single year. Coming up short last year, it stings. It hurts like any other year that you don’t win a World Series, but that one hurt a little bit more. So we wanted to make a statement, come back here and put ourselves in a good position going into the postseason.”
