The New York Yankees in September – Part One – The Batters (2025)

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March & April – 18-13

May – 17-9

June – 13-14

July – 12-13

August – 16-12

September? Who knew…

But this was a crucial time for the Yankees to produce a month like May or August and certainly not like June or July.

It was during those months that they had let the Toronto Blue Jays narrow the gap and eventually pass them.

Now they needed to more than match the Canadian team blow-for-blow and in so doing take the division and also earn a bye in the first round of the playoffs.

Let’s look at who did well in September – firstly among the batters…

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A New York Yankees Diary – Day Twenty-Eighth – September 28th, 2025

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And so we came to the last day of the season…

Not only did the Yankees need to win to clinch the bye through the first round of the playoffs, but they needed the Toronto Blue Jays to lose in their final game – against the Tampa Bay Rays, who had struggled almost as much in 2025 as the Yankees’ opponents on the final day – the Baltimore Orioles.

For the Yankees, it would be Luis Gil on the mound. This was a role that indicated to him that if the Yankees didn’t bypass the first round of those playoffs, he might not even make the roster for the Wildcard series. This then was a crucial game for him as he sought to show that he was worth a relief role and a spot on the roster as a starter for the second series.

Meanwhile, Kyle Brandish would be playing his last game of the season for Baltimore and an opportunity to improve on his 1-1 record in 2025 as he closed out his fourth year in the Majors.

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A New York Yankees Diary – Day Twenty-Seven – September 27th, 2025

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So, the Yankees steered their way into the last weekend of the regular season, knowing that if the balance of power stayed the same, the Toronto Blue Jays would take a tie in the division lead and therefore would be able to have a “bye” through the first round of the playoffs.

The tiebreak rules favour Toronto as they have won the majority of the games between the two teams this season.

On the other hand, The Yankees were facing the Baltimore Orioles – the weakest team in the American League East – so going into thi Saturday afternoon game anything could happen.

Cam Schlittler would start the game on the mound for the New York Yankees whilst for Baltimore, Tomoyuki Sugano would be the starting pitcher.

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A New York Yankees Diary – Day Twenty-Six – September 26th, 2025

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And so, the Yankees had moved into the last series of the regular season as they faced the Baltimore Orioles. Baltimore were 75-84 and bottom of the division, compared to the Yankees who were 91-68. The Yankees therefore had more to worry about – specifically what was happening in Toronto.

There, Toronto would face the Tampa Bay Rays for three consecutive games and the Yankees knew that if the Blue Jays should win all of those games then because Toronto had won the lion’s share of the games between the Blue Jays and New York then it would just be as though Toronto had won the division.

They would take the “bye” through the first round of the playoffs.

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A New York Yankees Diary – Day Twenty-Five – September 25th, 2025

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And so the Yankees headed into the final game of three against the Chicago White Sox. Carlos Rodon would start for New York and Davis Martin was on the mound for the Chicago team.

Needing to finish ahead of Toronto to clinch a bye through the first round of the playoffs as well as the need to clinch to take the honours of winning the American League East – which these days is peculiarly not essential but is more than nice to record.

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A New York Yankees Diary – Day Twenty-Four – September 24th, 2025

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So, the Yankees closed the gap on Toronto yesterday. Now they come to the second game of their three games series with the Chicago White Sox, hoping that it will not be as close as the first game, and also knowing that they could not afford to lose unless they should ruin their chances of taking of taking over at the head of the American League East.

Max Fried was to be the Yankees starter and Fraser Ellard would start on the mound for the Chicago team, in a game that would prove to be a bullpen game for them – intentionally or otherwise.

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A New York Yankees Diary – Day Twenty-Three – September 23rd, 2025

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And so back in NYC, the Yankees faced quite a comfortable run in. They would first face the Chicago White Sox – the worst team in the American League, second worst in all of major league baseball. After that they would face the Baltimore Orioles who have the poorest record in the Yankees’ own division – the American League East.

The difficulty is that, through these six games they will not only need to keep pace with the Toronto Blue Jays but surpass the Blue Jays record over the same period. They went into the first Chicago game two games behind Toronto and (because of Toronto having the advantage in the tie-breaker rules), they would need to finish one game ahead of the Blue Jays.

The tie-breaker stipulates that the team with most wins in the games between the two teams would finish top in event of a dead heat. And in this, Toronto have the clear edge – and the two teams will not play each other again in the regular season.

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A New York Yankees Diary – Day Twelve to Twenty-Two – September 12th-22nd, 2025

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And so on to the roadtrip. Left behind in New York City, I will give you shorter accounts of each day…

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A New York Yankees Diary – Day Eleven – September 11th, 2025

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The day for memorials. A day to remember a great tragedy.

There was a rumour that President Donald Trump would throw out first pitch. He didn’t, but he did attend the game and drew uproarious cheers from the fans, even at one point drowning out the singing of “God Bless America”.

But I am here to talk about baseball, so let’s turn our attention to the game.

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A New York Yankees Diary – Day Ten – September 10th, 2025

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So, on September the 9th, the Yankees went into the game against the Detroit Tigers looking limp and surely enough they were demolished by their opponents. The game ended 12-2, and now they desperately needed to bounce back – in order to even the series, and give them the best opportunity of going into the post-season playoffs as division winners.

One of the few highlights of yesterday’s game had been the starting pitcher, Will Warren and indeed it was when the Yankees had to substitute him and go into the bullpen that things really began to fall apart – the relievers (Fernando Cruz and Mark Leiter Jr) conceding 9 runs in one inning.

So today, with one of their strongest starters Carlos Rodon on the mound, they seemed to have a great chance.

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