MINNEAPOLIS — It was not always pretty — and in the end, was not completely their own doing — but the Yankees secured their ticket to the dance.
Now they will try to ensure that their champagne celebration Monday night was the first of many over the next six weeks.
In what long seemed like a formality, even as they went through some rough summer stretches without Aaron Judge, the Yankees clinched a playoff berth with a comeback 8-3 win over the Twins at rainy and cool Target Field.
Judge, fittingly, punctuated a six-run eighth inning by clobbering a three-run moonshot — his first home run in his sixth game since he returned from a three-month IL stay for a broken right rib — to the third deck in left field.
It may as well have been a warning shot to the rest of the American League, because if this was a sign of things to come for Judge, watch out.
Minutes later, the Blue Jays lost to the Tigers in Toronto, officially punching the Yankees’ playoff ticket before they finished off their own win over the Twins (70-80) in style.
Besides getting Judge on track, the Yankees (87-63) will now spend the final 12 games trying to chase down the Rays, whom they trail by 3 ¹/₂ games for first place in the American League with a crucial four-game showdown looming next week in The Bronx. The Yankees also extended their lead over the Red Sox to five games for the top AL wild card.
On a night when José Caballero and Austin Wells also homered, the Yankees became the fourth team to clinch a postseason spot, joining the Rays, Brewers and Dodgers. Aaron Boone has now led his team to the playoffs in eight of his first nine seasons, joining Dodgers boss Dave Roberts as the only manager to do so, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
The Yankees had just two hits through the first seven innings before finally coming alive in the eighth inning, which they entered trailing 2-1. George Lombard Jr. led off by smacking a first-pitch double off the wall in left-center field, then advanced to third when Ryan McMahon hit a chopper to shortstop that he legged out for an infield single.
Caballero, whose solo shot in the third inning was the only Yankees run in 5 ²/₃ innings against Twins starter Dean Kremer, followed by shooting a single up the middle to tie the game 2-2.
Ben Rice put the Yankees ahead for good with a broken-bat, two-run bloop to shallow center field against lefty reliever A.J. Minter for the 4-2 lead.
After Bellinger kept the rally going with a dribbler back to the mound that Minter muffed, Judge got a 2-2 cutter — during an at-bat in which the Yankees appeared to have a tip on Minter’s pitches — and demolished it to left field for his first home run since May 24.
The Yankees had led 1-0 entering the bottom of the sixth before their defense let them down and ended an otherwise strong start from Will Warren on a sour note. The right-hander should have gotten through six shutout innings but instead had to settle for 5 ²/₃ innings with two unearned runs after a Ryan McMahon fielding error gave way to the Twins’ two-run rally.
Later in the frame, Lombard had a line drive go off his glove on a leaping attempt and Spencer Jones overran a ball in left-center field, ensuring the go-ahead run scored on what was ruled a “triple” for Emmanuel Rodriguez.
But instead of backing into a playoff spot courtesy of the Blue Jays loss, the Yankees mounted a comeback in the eighth inning to begin their celebration the right way.
