The New York Yankees have won the American League East title after a 10-1 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday. This win gave the Yankees (93-66) a first-round bye in the playoffs, beginning their postseason journey on October 5 against the winner of the wild-card round. Likewise, they will five days off after their season finale against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday. In the victory, Aaron Judge also matched Babe Ruth's MLB record last seen 104 years ago.

“Aaron Judge…has homered in 5 straight games. He has also drawn a walk in 10 straight. The only other player in MLB history to be on a 5+ game homer streak and a 10+ game walk streak at the end of a given day was Babe Ruth on June 14, 1921,” per a post from OptaSTATS on X, formerly Twitter.

The Yankees hitter makes MLB history again

New York Yankees center fielder Aaron Judge (99) celebrates after hitting a two run home run during the seventh inning against the Baltimore Orioles at Yankee Stadium.
© Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

Besides channeling his inner Babe Ruth, Aaron Judge also became first in the MLB in home runs with 58 against the Orioles. Judge has also recorded 144 RBIs, the most in the major leagues since Ryan Howard had 146 in 2008.

Meanwhile, Giancarlo Stanton had four RBIs and hit his 27th home run, capping off an outstanding regular season for the Yankees, one of the favorites to win the 2024 World Series.

“We're gonna party hard, so I might take a day off. We'll see,” the Yankees captain said after his team clinched the AL East title.

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Moreover, Yankees manager Aaron Boone had expressed confidence in his team before the division-clinching game.

“We've known we had to play well here down the stretch to put ourselves in position to win the division. You never know what happens when you get into the tournament. It's about peaking at those times, too,” he said.

With the win, the Yankees also hold a one-game lead and the tiebreaker over the AL Central champions Cleveland Guardians (92-67), in their quest to secure home-field advantage throughout the American League playoffs. The Orioles had also defeated the Yankees 9-7 on Wednesday, but they recovered.

“Nothing's been easy for us this year. Shouldn't expect it to be now,” Boone said after the loss. “But we've kind of persevered and kind of grinded our way through all of it.”

The Yankees have also bounced back from missing the postseason last year for the first time since 2016, winning their 21st division title and clinching no worse than a wild-card spot. In finally finding a groove after going 30-38 until early September, Judge's heroics played a major role in them winning 13 of their last 19 games.