As Yankees begin final weekend, very little has been decided
Yankees manager Aaron Boone high fives rightfielder Aaron Judge after a win against the White Sox at Yankee Stadium on Thursday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
If you’re a Yankees fan, there’s no point in making plans yet for their first game of the playoffs. It’s not clear if it will be played on Tuesday or Oct. 4.
Going into Friday’s final series of the regular season against Baltimore at Yankee Stadium, all the Yankees knew 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.
The Yankees went into Friday with the same record as Toronto (91-68), but the Blue Jays led the AL East because they won the season series with the Yankees and thus own the tiebreaker.
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 three (Toronto is hosting Tampa Bay this weekend).
If the Yankees take the AL East, 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 against Boston, Cleveland, Detroit or Houston — whichever one ends up as the second AL wild card.
So if you haven’t started planning, you’re not the only one.
Manager Aaron Boone was asked before Friday night’s 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 Orioles entered Friday with a record of 75-84, but the Yankees weren’t taking them lightly. Baltimore got off to a 19-36 start this season, but going into Friday, the Orioles were 56-48 since May 30, which happened to be the same record as the Yankees over that span. “I think they’re good,” Boone said. “That’s what they’ve shown over the last, really, three months or so. They’ve played well.”
The Yankees had won six of 10 against Baltimore going in and got off to a good start Friday when Giancarlo 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 after he retired the first two batters in the third to put Baltimore ahead 3-2, but Aaron Judge responded with his 52nd homer, a 423-foot two-run shot to center, in the bottom of the inning and Stanton added a 451-foot two-run shot to give the Yankees a 6-3 lead.
The first challenge for the Yankees on Friday was Baltimore starter Rogers, who 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 on Sept. 19, he shut out the Yankees on one hit over six innings in a 4-2 Orioles victory. He lasted only three innings this time.
The Yankees went in having won five in a row and eight of nine and had gone 29-12 since Aug. 11 to move to a season-high 23 games over .500. They’ve gotten hot at the right time and were hoping to finish the job at home and get some help from pesky Tampa Bay this weekend.
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. “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.”
Stanton hit a go-ahead three-run double in the fifth inning of the Yankees’ 5-3 win over the White Sox on Thursday. Carlos Rodon got his 18th win and, perhaps most importantly, Luke Weaver, Devin Williams and David Bednar combined for three shutout innings.
“It’s a good preview,” Stanton said. “It’s understood what we need to do. It’s what we’re capable of, and we’ve got three more games to be the ultimate factor, then turn the page and see what else we can do.”
And whom they can do it against. And when.
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.
More Yankees headlines
