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

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-Five – September 25th, 2025

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-Three – September 23rd, 2025

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

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 Ten – September 10th, 2025

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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The New York Yankees in May – Part Two – The Pitchers (2025)

The Yankees have had a tremendous month in May. They have won 17 games and lost only 9.

At the same time, the performances of some of the players who were strong in April have not continued in the same direction. However, some who struggled in April have turned it around.

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The New York Yankees in March / April – Part One – The Batters (2025)

The New York Yankees led (in every sense) by their captain, Aaron Judge were quick off the mark in 2025. By the end of March, they were 3-0 and a game in front of the rest of their division. By the end of April, they were 18-13 and had increased their lead to one-and-a-half games.

Obviously, there had been many changes since their disappointing perfomance in the 2024 World Series.

Some of these had been by choice – some because they had been outbid on free agents they would have liked to re-sign.

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A New York Yankees Diary – Day Five – September 15th, 2024

A sunny Sunday Autumn afternoon in New York. My favourite version of the song “Autumn in New York” is by Carolyn Leonhart, who is one of Donald Fagen‘s “Danettes“. Great song, great singer, and this promises to be a great game. Final game of four against the great rivals, Boston Red Sox with the New York Yankees needing to win to take the series and Boston able to achieve a tie if they can take a win. so, why it’s not quite all to play for, it is enough to keep it interesting. Let’s have a shilling on the side.

Pitching for the Yankees is Carlos Rodon. For Boston it is Kutter Crawford.

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A New York Yankees Diary – Day Four – September 14th, 2024

So, the New York Yankees started the game with a 2-0 lead over the Boston Red Sox in this Bronx series. In recent days, they had edged the games, with extra innings and a remarkable comeback playing their part on different days. These Yankees were not going to lie down.

Game 3 then with Brayan Bello on the mound for Boston, and Yankees ace, Gerrit Cole heightening his teams chances of moving towards a sweep in the series.

… but then there have been many twists in this tale.

And there is room for more.

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A New York Yankees Diary – Day Three – September 13th, 2024

And so to the second game of a four game series against the Boston Red Sox. The Yankees had scraped through two in extra innings – one versus Kansas City and the first in the series against Boston – but surely this sequence couldn’t last.

Tonight’s starter was Clarke Schmidt who was another making progress after returning from injury, and hoping to ensure that if the Yankees did progress to the postseason he would be on that roster as a starter.

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