Yankees celebrate postseason berth with wild locker-room party after ninth-inning comeback vs. White Sox

The New York Yankees clinched a spot in the postseason with a dramatic ninth-inning comeback, earning a 3-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox and dropping their magic number to zero.

The moment of triumph sparked an exuberant locker-room celebration, with dozens of bottles of Budweiser beer and Belaire champagne opened and the contents sprayed around the room. Players—including Aaron Judge, Jason Dominguez and the rest of the roster—were soaked as shirts and hats stitched with the words 'October baseball' took on a new, drenched meaning. To protect personal belongings, plastic coverings lined the lockers, though little inside remained dry amid the revelry.

Despite not entering the postseason as the overwhelming favorite from earlier in the season, the Yankees secured a playoff berth by winning and by virtue of other teams’ results, remaining one game behind the Toronto Blue Jays for the division title and clinching a Wild Card spot. The win extended New York’s lead to 21 games over .500, a mark that underscored the season’s roller-coaster arc.

The beaches of optimism that surrounded the club earlier in the year have given way to a more tempered, edge-of-seat approach as the calendar winds toward the regular season’s close. Late surges by other contending clubs — including the Detroit Tigers, Texas Rangers and Houston Astros — opened the door for the Yankees to seize a postseason berth, even as the club faced its own downturns and questions about consistency.

As the regular season moves toward its final stretch, New York is set to play two more games against the White Sox before finishing the slate with five games overall, including a critical date with the Baltimore Orioles to close the year. The Blue Jays, who led the division earlier, did not lock in a playoff berth and are proceeding through their own end-of-season schedule against the Boston Red Sox before finishing with a series against the Tampa Bay Rays. In the bigger picture, the Yankees’ postseason berth provides fresh momentum for a franchise yearning to add another championship banner after last year’s pennant run and a decades-spanning title drought for some fans.

For fans, the moment offered a clear reminder that, even amid a volatile season and a shifting playoff landscape, the game’s most defining thrill remains the opportunity to chase a title when the calendar turns to October. The party in the clubhouse—no matter how raucous—captured a simple, enduring truth for a storied franchise: a postseason berth is a chapter worth celebrating, even if the road ahead is uncertain.