Yankees keep pace with Blue Jays as Giancarlo Stanton hits two home runs and Aaron Judge blasts No. 52
Yankees designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton reacts to the dugout after hitting a two-run home run against the Orioles during the third inning at Yankee Stadium on Friday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The Yankees took care of business on Friday night with an 8-4 victory over the Orioles before 44,596 at Yankee Stadium. Giancarlo Stanton hit two two-run homers and drove in five runs and Aaron Judge blasted home run No. 52 as the Yankees won their sixth in a row.
But the AL East-leading Toronto Blue Jays also took care of business with a 4-2 victory over Tampa Bay. So the Yankees did not get any closer to winning the division with two games to go in the regular season.
The Yankees and Blue Jays both are 92-68, but Toronto won the season series with the Yankees and owns the tiebreaker.
Ties in baseball are said to go to the runner. In this case, the tie will go to Toronto if the Blue Jays and Yankees finish with the same record.
“We’re in a good place, as far as our focus and understanding the importance of the day and handling our business,” manager Aaron Boone said. “That’s the main thing. Obviously, we have no control over anything other than what we do between the lines. So our guys are locked in, playing for a lot, focused.”
Going into Saturday, all the Yankees know for sure is that they will be home for at least the first two games of their 2025 postseason. They have clinched a playoff spot and will be either the AL East champion or the top AL wild card.
In order to win the division and skip an appearance in the wild-card round, the Yankees have to win one more game than the Blue Jays in the final two days. Oddly, the Yankees could finish with eight straight wins and 32 wins in their last 44 games — and it still might not be enough.
If the Yankees take the AL East title, they will open the playoffs in the Division Series on Oct. 4 against an opponent to be determined.
If the Yankees don’t win the AL East, they will open the playoffs in the wild-card round on Tuesday. Boston, Cleveland and Detroit would be their possible opponents.
Boone was asked before the game if he had started developing plans for the postseason.
“We haven’t developed anything,” he said. “We’re in today mode. We’ll get to the end of the weekend and then have, obviously, all those conversations and get ourselves lined up. But we’re pouring everything into today.”
The Yankees have won nine of 10 and have gone 30-12 since Aug. 11 to move to a season-high 24 games over .500.
Winning the division would give the Yankees more than street cred: It would earn them a first-round bye, just as they had last season when they went to the World Series.
“The bye is always good,” Stanton said on Thursday. “You’ve got guys that are beat up, that need a rest, a little mental break before how heavy those games can get. It’s ideal.”
The Yankees got off to a good start when Stanton hit a two-out, two-run homer to rightfield off Orioles ace Trevor Rogers in the first inning.
Jordan Westburg hit a three-run homer off Will Warren in the third to put Baltimore ahead 3-2, but in the bottom of the inning, Judge responded with a 423-foot two-run shot to center and Stanton added a 451-foot two-run blast to left-center to give the Yankees a 6-3 lead. He picked up his fifth RBI with a groundout in the seventh to give the Yankees an 8-4 lead.
Stanton entered Thursday 11-for-73 with 36 strikeouts in his previous 22 games and struck out in his first two at-bats in that game, but he has recorded eight RBIs in the last two games and has 23 home runs and 64 RBIs in 75 games.
“Getting back to more comfortable, for sure,” he said.
Rogers came in with a 9-2 record and 1.35 ERA. He had allowed as many as three earned runs in only one of his 17 starts and had given up three home runs all season. On Sept. 19, he shut out the Yankees on one hit over six innings in a 4-2 Orioles victory. The Yankees haven’t lost since.
Warren (9-8, 4.44 ERA) went five innings-plus and departed after giving up a leadoff home run by Tyler O’Neill in the sixth to make it 6-4. Austin Wells had an RBI single for the Yankees in the bottom half.
Mark Leiter Jr., Tim Hill, Fernando Cruz, Camilo Doval and David Bednar combined for four shutout innings, allowing one hit and five walks. The six Yankees pitchers struck out 13 Orioles.
Yankees draw Netflix opener. The Yankees’ 2026 season-opening game in San Francisco on March 25 will be exclusively streamed by Netflix, according to The Athletic. The game will be a stand-alone MLB season opener with the rest of the teams playing the next day. In 2026, Netflix will begin a three-year deal with MLB that will include an Opening Day game, the Home Run Derby and other events.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
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