NJ baseball: Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe at Delbarton youth camp
New York Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe came back to Delbarton School to host a youth baseball camp on Aug. 7, 2025.
BALTIMORE − Those bottles of playoff-clinching champagne aren’t on ice yet, but the case is on order.
Entering Friday night’s game against the Orioles at Camden Yards, the Yankees had a magic number of six to enter postseason as at least the AL’s third wild-card entry.
Currently, the Yanks (86-67) have a two-game lead on the top AL wild card spot – affording home field advantage in a best-of-three wild card series – with nine games to play.
Plus, the Yankees’ advantageous remaining schedule – six games against the Orioles (72-81), three against the White Sox (57-96), with six of those games at Yankee Stadium – have them still in the divisional picture.
The Toronto Blue Jays, with a three-game edge over the Yankees (plus a tiebreaker, based on head-to-head records), entered Friday’s play with a magic number of six to win the AL East.
Several teams are in play for the remaining wild card spots, so let’s look at the remaining tiebreakers involving Yankees’ potential first-round opponents:
Yankees or Red Sox: Who holds AL wild card tiebreaker?
If the ancient rivals wind up in a tie for the top wild card spot, the Yankees will be traveling to Fenway Park for the opening best-of-three series. But that’s a long-shot scenario now.
The Red Sox went 9-4 against the Yankees, but Boston (83-70) has faded to the third wild card spot, three games behind the Yanks and threatened by the surging Cleveland Guardians (81-71).
Yankees or Astros: Who holds AL wild card tiebreaker?
The Yankees and Astros split their season series 3-3, taking them to the next tiebreaker: Records within their own division.
And here’s where it gets interesting: Entering Friday, Houston is 22-21 vs. the AL West while the Yankees are 22-24 versus the AL East.
Yankees or Mariners: Who holds AL wild card tiebreaker?
Right now, the Mariners and Astros – both at 84-69 – are locked in a tie atop the AL West and they’ve got a highly important three-game series beginning Friday at Houston.
Should the Mariners end up in a wild card tie with the Yankees, that series would be in the Bronx, based on the Yankees’ 5-1 season record vs. Seattle.
Yankees or Guardians: Who holds AL wild card tiebreaker?
Buried in the AL Central at the MLB trade deadline and seemingly pointed toward 2026, Cleveland had won 12 of its last 13 games to pull within three games of the first-place Detroit Tigers.
A game-and-a-half back of Boston for the final AL wild card spot, the Guardians and Yankees split their season series, 3-3.
If a tiebreaker is necessary, it’ll go to the Guardians, with a 31-14 divisional record.