Giancarlo Stanton is as stoic as they come, so when he unleashed a fist pump after reaching second base, it served as a testament to the immense importance of Thursday’s game.
The celebration followed a go-ahead three-run double by Stanton in the bottom of the fifth, which proved to be the game-winner in the Yankees’ 5-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox in the Bronx.
“It’s understood what we need to do,” Stanton said.
The Yankees (91-68) remain tied atop the American League East with the Toronto Blue Jays, who defeated the Boston Red Sox, 6-1, on Thursday night.
Toronto holds the tiebreaker over the Yankees, who will need to win at least one game more than the Blue Jays over the final three to claim the division.
But thanks to Boston’s loss, the Yankees will now finish no worse than the AL’s top Wild Card spot, guaranteeing there will be games in the Bronx this postseason.
“Great, but that’s not the world we’re even living in right now,” manager Aaron Boone said of clinching at least the No. 4 seed. “We need to try to win every game, and that’s our focus.”
The Yankees fell behind, 3-1, in the top of the fourth when starter Carlos Rodón surrendered a two-run home run to Michael A. Taylor.
But Stanton answered an inning later when he drilled his one-out, bases-clearing double against left-handed reliever Tyler Gilbert down the left-field line, giving the Yankees a 4-3 lead.
Stanton ripped his 109-mph grounder under the glove of third baseman Curtis Mead, who would have had an inning-ending double play had he corralled it.
The clutch hit gave Stanton 59 RBI in 74 games this year.
“He’s been huge for us,” Boone said. “He’s such a presence for us. … He’s just gotten a lot of big hits for us, a lot of big at-bats. His presence in the middle of our order — especially his right-handed presence with a lot of our lefties, to go with Aaron [Judge] — it’s big. He’s really focused, and he’s been massively productive for us.”
Austin Wells added an RBI double in the seventh to pad the Yankees’ lead.
That ended up being enough offense on a night Rodón limited Chicago — his original team — to three runs over six innings and struck out five in his final start of the regular season.
Rodón finished his third year with the Yankees with a 18-9 record, a 3.09 ERA and 203 strikeouts in 195.1 innings over 33 starts.
“He’s obviously had a great season,” Boone said. “I think tonight’s a really good look at how far he’s come in his evolution as a pitcher. He can pitch his way through things. You see him, [in] a lot of these games, not overwhelming you with [the] big fastball. He usually has it when he needs it, but he has a real good feel and idea of pitching now.”
Rodón’s second K on Thursday made him the sixth Yankees left-hander to record at least 200 strikeouts in a season, joining Whitey Ford, Al Downing, Ron Guidry, Randy Johnson and CC Sabathia.
Max Fried and Rodón tied for the team lead in innings, with that duo stepping up after ace Gerrit Cole underwent season-ending elbow surgery during spring training.
“Just glad I was able to go out there and post every five, six days and compete and try to win every game,” Rodón said.
“For five, six years straight, Gerrit made every start in the regular season and in the postseason. Those were big shoes to fill, but it’s going to be nice when we have him back.”
Judge drew a pair of intentional walks, giving him 36 this year. That set an American League single-season record. Judge finished 2-for-3 with the two walks, boosting his MLB-best average to .330 and his MLB-leading OPS to 1.140.
Luke Weaver, Devin Williams and David Bednar hurled a scoreless inning apiece to lock down the victory.
Thursday’s win was the Yankees’ fifth in a row and finished off a three-game sweep of the cellar-dwelling White Sox (58-101).
As it stands, the Yankees are the AL’s top Wild Card team, with Boston (87-72) now four games behind and unable to catch them. Finishing atop the Wild Card standings would mean the Yankees hosting a best-of-three series in the Wild Card round next week.
But the Yankees have loftier aspirations.
After trailing by five games as recently as Sept. 16, the Yankees tied the Blue Jays on Wednesday, marking the first time since July 2 that they held a share of the division lead.
The division will now be decided over the weekend.
The Yankees’ final three games are against the Baltimore Orioles (75-84) in the Bronx, while Toronto will host the Tampa Bay Rays (77-82).
Will Warren (8-8, 4.35 ERA) is set to start for the Yankees in Friday night’s series opener, while Trevor Rogers (9-2, 1.35 ERA) is scheduled to pitch for Baltimore.
“We’re playing well,” Stanton said. “We’re executing on offense and defense, throwing the ball well, so good time to click. But we haven’t done anything tomorrow.”