On Tuesday night, the New York Yankees finally secured their spot in the 2025 MLB postseason with a dramatic, come from behind 3-2 win against the Chicago White Sox that required some heroics from trade deadline acquisition Jose Caballero. Caballero hit a single to center field to score Aaron Judge to give the Yankees their 89th win in 157 games.

The Yankees, however, know that the job is far from finished, and not just from a World Series-winning perspective. After the game, Judge revealed what the Yankees' “ultimate goal” is after they inched closer to the Toronto Blue Jays in the AL East standings — standing just one game behind them in the win-loss column.

“We're all excited. It takes a lot of hard work to get to this point. It's a long season. [But] the ultimate goal is to win our division. It's right there for us. We're excited about getting in. [But] we got bigger things ahead of us,” Judge told Meredith Marakovits of YES Network.

The division crown is right there for the Yankees' taking, and the schedule is definitely favorable for them. They are facing the White Sox and Baltimore Orioles to finish the season, while the Blue Jays are currently in a series against the Boston Red Sox, a team that's currently sitting in a playoff spot, before ending the season against the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Yankees will have to finish with a better record than the Blue Jays if they were to win the AL East. They cannot just tie the Blue Jays, as Toronto owns the tiebreaker by virtue of winning the season series.

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But considering the Yankees' current form and drive to win the division, no one better count them out.

Yankees and Blue Jays' fight for the AL East crown will go down to the wire

New York Yankees second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. (13) celebrates with teammates after clinching a playoff birth by defeating the Chicago White Sox 3-2 at Yankee Stadium.
John Jones-Imagn Images.

Since the start of July, the Yankees and Blue Jays have been duking it out atop the AL East, with the Blue Jays having taken the division lead on the third of July. But the Yankees have weathered hitting slumps, defensive yips, and injury woes to Judge and have been hanging tough — with the division battle going down to the wire.

The Yankees have gone 7-3 over their past 10 games, and they have MLB's best offense, making them a formidable opponent for any team. Their pitchers have also been throwing very well as of late, and they will need to come up clutch for them to overtake the Blue Jays by the time the final pitch of Game 162 is thrown.