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The Yankees are American League East champions once again.
After defeating the Orioles, 10-1, on Thursday, the Yankees are guaranteed to have home-field advantage in the ALDS when they start their pursuit of their 28th championship.
The Yankees are now winners of the AL East for the 21st time in franchise history and three of the last five seasons.
“Really proud of this group. We’ve faced a ton this year and they’ve answered at every turn,” manager Aaron Boone told YES Network’s Meredith Marakovits after the game. “We set out to win the division when we started this thing. It’s another checked box but we have more to go.”
“Extremely proud,” Aaron Judge said of this year’s team. “You gotta celebrate the little things. It’s a lot of hard work to win a division with the teams that are in our group. We’re going to celebrate tonight and look forward to October.”
Judge launched his MLB-leading 58th home run of the season on Thursday and has been the main force behind this year’s success.
The last time the Yankees won the AL East (2022), they made it to the ALCS before being bounced by the Houston Astros in four games.
With a spot in the postseason, the Yankees will now set their sights on the top seed in the American League. Entering their weekend series with the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Yankees’ magic number is two as they look to hold off the Cleveland Guardians, who take on the Astros to finish up the regular season.
“Hopefully we can have a good weekend and set us up again,” Boone later said of playing for home field. “But this was a big one.”
Winning the No. 1 seed will give the Yankees home-field advantage throughout the playoffs and keep the AL West champion Astros on the other side of the bracket.
The soonest the Yankees will see the Astros would be in the ALCS.
