Yankees manager Aaron Boone takes swings at Fenway Park
Yankees manager Aaron Boone stepped into the cage at Fenway Park to take a few batting practice swings before the Sept. 13, 2025 game against the Red Sox.
NEW YORK – As late as Sept. 17, the Yankees started the day five games behind the Toronto Blue Jays, cruising toward an AL East crown.
In a crazy final stretch around MLB, the Yankees have pulled even with Toronto, which holds the all-important tiebreaker between the teams.
With four games left in the regular season, the Yankees also have a chance to claim the AL’s best record.
“It’s pretty amazing,” said Aaron Judge, after his historic two-homer Wednesday night boosted the Yankees to an 8-1 win of the woeful Chicago White Sox, while the Blue Jays lost to the Boston Red Sox at Toronto.
“A lot of competitive teams out there doing their thing,” said Judge of the late September madness around baseball. “We’ll see what happens in the next four days.”
Once again, Toronto enters Thursday with a magic number of four (combined Jays wins and Yanks losses) to win the division.
And while the Yankees host two last-place teams in the White Sox (58-100 entering Wednesday) and the Baltimore Orioles (74-84) over the final four games, the Blue Jays host the Red Sox (87-71), the current second wild card holder, and the Tampa Bay Rays (76-81).
In punching their postseason ticket with Tuesday night’s 3-2 win against the White Sox, and with Wednesday’s victory, the Yanks have – at least – improved their hold on the top AL wild card spot.
If they enter postseason as the No.1 wild card, the Yankees will host all games of a best-of-three wild card series beginning Tuesday at Yankee Stadium.
If the Yanks win the division, they’d gain entry to the Division Series, beginning Oct. 4.
Boone called Tuesday night’s postseason clinching party “a little pause to kind of appreciate where we got to’’ while still understanding “the bigger picture and where we want to go.
“We still have a chance to impact this regular season in a more positive way.’’