Playoff berth? Check.
AL East title? Check.
Home-field advantage? Check.
And the Yankees officially crossed off their last order of business for the regular season on Saturday, as they locked up the top seed in the American League for the first time since 2012.
New York already secured home-field advantage in the Divisional Series by winning their division earlier this week, and now that they are leading the pack in the AL, they’ll keep it through the championship series thanks to a little help from the Astros.
After the Yankees dropped their second straight game to the Pirates earlier in the day, the Guardians dropped their second straight to Houston, 4-3, clinching the No. 1 seed for the Bombers.
That means that any Game 7 matchup the Yanks face right up to the ALCS will be played in The Bronx.
This also guarantees that the Yankees aren’t on the same side of the bracket as the third-seeded Astros, meaning that they wouldn’t have to face them again until a potential ALCS matchup.
As currently constructed, they’ll have to go through the winner of the Orioles and Tigers Wild Card round matchup, but playoff seedings remain tight heading into the final day of the season.
The Yankees pulled away from Baltimore over the final few weeks of the year, but they dropped the season series to them 8-5, including two out of three just this week.
They swept a three-game series from the Tigers in The Bronx in the first week of May, but Detroit has been one of the hottest teams in baseball over the season’s closing month.