The powerful bats of Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, and Didi Gregorius have allowed the Yankees to become one of the best teams in major league baseball. With a record of 100-62, they are only behind the Houston Astros with a record of 103-59, and their rival, the Boston Red Sox, who have an impressive record of 108-54.

Even though they have a better record than most other teams that won their division, the Red Sox are in the Yankees’ division, so the Red Sox clinched the American League East. Since the Yankees did not win their division, they had to play in the wild card game. This took place on October 3. The Yankees played the Oakland Athletics, who they crushed.

Even though they didnt clinch their division, they still could clinch a very important thing: home field advantage. On September 28, the Yankees successfully clinched home field advantage.

The lineup for the Yankees consisted of Andrew McCutchen, Aaron Judge, Didi Gregorius, Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Hicks, Miguel Andujar, Gary Sanchez, Luke Voit, and Gleyber Torres. Up until Monday, the yankees starting pitcher remained a mystery. It was between Luis Severino, J.A. Happ, and Massahiro Tanaka. Luis Severino is known as their “ace” but ever since the all star game, he has not been the same. However, he has been more like his “ace” self during his last couple starts. J.A. Happ was also a contender because of his impressive era of 2.69. Tanaka has also been very good for the Yankees. This was a very tough decison for manager, Aaron Boone. However, the Yankees did end up going with Luis Severino, who gave the Yankees a solid 4 innings. After Severino allowed no runs to be scored, Delin Bertances came in for a great 2 innings, then David Robertson, Zach Britton, and finally Arolids Chapman closed the game.

Aaron Judge kicked off the game with a two run homer in the bottom of the 1st. The 6 inning was a very successful one for the Yankees. Aaron Hicks doubled, which allowed another run to score. Then Luke Voit hit a triple, allowing Hicks and Stanton to score. To wrap up the 6th, Didi Gregorious hit a sac fly allowing Voit to score. This gave the Yankees a 6-0 lead. In the top of the 8th, the Athletics did chip away at the deficit, but only by 2 runs. Finally in the bottom of the 8, Giancarlo Stanton hit a home run, making the score 7-2. This was the final score of the game.

Since the Yankees won the wild card game, they now will play the Boston Red Sox. J.A. Happ will most likely be pitching the series opener of the ALDS, which will happen on October 5 at Fenway Park.