About Last Night: The Yankees Plucked the Orioles 8-4

About Last Night: The Yankees Plucked the Orioles 8-4

By Tim Kabel

September 27, 2025

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Last night, the Yankees turned the tables on Trevor Rogers, who pitched six innings of one-hit ball with seven strikeouts against them last week in Baltimore. Last night, Rogers only lasted three innings and gave up six runs. It was a rough night in the neighborhood for Mr. Rogers. He was clearly not the King, Friday. The Yankees won the game and remained tied with the Blue Jays for the lead in the American League East. However, because the Blue Jays beat the Yankees in their season series, they would win the division and the Yankees would be the top Wild Card team if things stayed as they are. If the Yankees are one game ahead of the Blue Jays after Sunday's games, they will win the division. 

Quick Stats – 

·       The Yankees have won six games in a row and nine of their last ten.

·       The Yankees set the Major League record for first-inning home runs last night when Giancarlo Stanton hit the 48th for the Yankees, breaking the previous record set by Atlanta in 2023.

·       This was Giancarlo Stanton’s 39th multiple home run game of his career, including one in the playoffs.  

·       In 75 games since coming off the IL, Stanton is hitting .267 with 23 home runs and 64 RBI. 

·       Aaron Judge has fifty home runs in 118 career games against the Baltimore Orioles.

·       Stanton's second home run was the 452nd of his career, tying him with Carl Yastrzemski for 40th place all time.

·       This was the 58th time that Judge and Stanton hit home runs in the same game, including the postseason. The Yankees have won 51 of those games.

·       On September 26^th, 1961, Roger Maris hit his 60th home run of the season in a 3-2 Yankees’ win over the Baltimore Orioles, tying Babe Ruth’s record.

The Big Story – 

The Yankees have locked up fourth place in the American League playoffs. They can still win the division. If they do that, they will jump to first place and get a bye in the first round.

Figuring out the playoff matchups at this point requires an abacus and a slide rule. If the Blue Jays win the division and the Yankees are the top Wild Card team, the Yankees will host the Wild Card series beginning on Tuesday, September 30th. All three games would be at Yankee Stadium. If the Yankees win the division, they will get a bye and would begin the Division Series at home on Saturday, October 4th. The Division Series is a best of five series. The League Championship Series and the World Series are best of seven matchups.

Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, the Yankees need to secure first place in the division to get a bye and avoid the Wild Card round. I know there are some people who feel that getting the bye could be a disadvantage because the teams that get the bye are off until October 4th and could become rusty or out of sync. That may be true, but a three-game series against any team is very dangerous and if the Yankees can avoid that, they should. 

Because they lost the season series to the Blue Jays, the Yankees do not have control over their own destiny at this point. All they can do is win their final two games. If the Blue Jays do the same thing, they win the division. The Yankees need to win both of their games and the Blue Jays need to lose either one or both of their last two games. No matter how the Yankees arrived at this point, it is exciting.

Player of the Game – 

Giancarlo Stanton had two two-run home runs and drove in five runs. 

Notable Performances – 

Aaron Judge hit his 52nd home run of the season and drove in two runs. He is on his way to winning his first batting title.

Mark Leiter, Jr., Tim Hill, Fernando Cruz, Camilo Doval, and David Bednar pitched four innings of scoreless, one hit relief.

Better To Forget-

Will Warren gave up four runs in five innings which is not exactly finishing strong for the playoffs.

My Take – 

I have to admit I was wrong. I was not convinced that the Yankees would make the playoffs based on their excessively long Boone-Swoon this year. I certainly did not think they would be in contention for winning the division with two games to go. I was mistaken. Luckily, I have my friend Roger, who reminded me that I was mistaken repeatedly yesterday. Roger has a master’s degree in gloating and keeps a fifty-pound drum of salt in his garage just to rub in wounds.

It is true that the Yankees played a very weak schedule down the stretch but that really doesn't matter because at other points in the season, they lost to weaker teams. The Yankees have done what they needed to do to make the playoffs. At worst, they are the number four seed. At best, they will be the first seed. With two games to go, there is no other option. Either they win the division and are the first seed and get a bye, or they are the top Wild Card team and open a three-game series at home. If that happens, I cannot tell you which team they will be playing. It would most likely be Boston, but I am not sure what would happen if there were to be a tie between the Red Sox and the Tigers, or the Astros, or the Guardians.

We might not know until Sunday evening if the Yankees will win the division or be the top Wild Card seed. Because the Yankees lost the season series to the Blue Jays, it is out of their hands. They need to win their last two games to have any real hope of winning the division. It is true that they would need to win only one if the Blue Jays lost both of their last two games, but they shouldn't try to get overly cute. Even if the Yankees win both games, if the Blue Jays do the same thing, they will win the division.

It would be much better for the Yankees, or frankly any team, to avoid the Wild Card round. Three-game series are extremely difficult. If the Yankees were to lose the first game against whichever opponent, they would have to win both of the next two games while their opponent would only have to split them.

My favorite professor in college, Albert Abbott, taught a class in military history. I vividly remember him saying that because the American colonists were able to defeat the British relying heavily on the militia, or “Sunshine Patriots” in the Revolutionary War and not a large standing army created a precedent that hurt America in future wars, and cost tolls of unnecessary casualties. On a far less serious scale, the Yankees ability to shake off their annual Boone-Swoons and slide into the playoffs could eventually backfire on them. Well, it actually did two years ago but that team was just not as good. However, that is a discussion for another day and whenever the season ends, we will have plenty of time for that.

The Yankees and honestly, Aaron Boone, yes, I did write that, deserve credit for making the playoffs. Considering that the Yankees had a 7-game lead in the division on May 30th, they sort of squeaked into the playoffs but, they are there. It is true that once a team is in the playoffs, anything can happen. Will it? There is no way to tell. It would be easier to do so without playing the Wild Card round. We will see what happens over the next two days.

Next Up-

The Yankees will play the second game of this three-game series against the Orioles, in their penultimate game of the season today at 1:05 PM at Yankee Stadium. The Orioles will use Tomoyuki Sugano, (10-9, 4.54 ERA). The Yankees will send Cam Schlittler, (3-3, 3.27 ERA) to the mound.