Yankees clinch playoff spot with walk-off win over White Sox

New York clinched a playoff berth with a 3-2 walk-off win over the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium. Jose Caballero delivered the decisive hit with two outs in the ninth, a looping RBI single to center that scored Aaron Judge from third as the Yankees completed their path to October. The victory secures the Yankees' eighth postseason berth in the past nine years and 26th since 1995, underscoring a franchise that has routinely found its way to the postseason despite periods of doubt in any given year.

With two on and Cody Bellinger down to his last strike in the ninth, White Sox left-hander Brandon Eisert delivered a full-count wild pitch to the backstop, enabling Anthony Volpe to score the tying run. Caballero then endured a marathon at-bat that included five foul balls and nine pitches before lining a single into center to drive in Judge and complete the comeback. Earlier, Luis Gil had been tagged for a two-run homer by Colson Montgomery in the sixth, briefly giving Chicago the lead before New York’s bullpen locked it down the rest of the way.

Before the dramatics in the ninth, the game featured sharp late-inning defense and timely hits that kept New York in striking distance. In the sixth, Kyle Teel looped a ball to right-center that Trent Grisham and Aaron Judge apparently misread, allowing Teel to reach. Three pitches later, Gil left a changeup over the middle and Montgomery punished it 428 feet into the bleachers in right, delivering Chicago’s go-ahead shot. The Yankees then leaned on the bullpen — Fernando Cruz, Tim Hill and Luke Weaver — to bridge the innings after Gil, while the offense continued to threaten but could not add until the ninth.

The victory leaves New York with the top wild-card position and within one game of the Toronto Blue Jays, who hold the tiebreaker in the American League East race. With five games remaining in the regular season, the Yankees will be positioned to influence playoff seeding in the final weekend and beyond, maintaining their status as one of the latest-flowering teams in October in recent memory.

The season’s arc for the Yankees has included a hastily devised Plan B after Juan Soto departed for Queens in the offseason, a spring training that tested the roster, and a midseason slide through June and July that exposed both physical and mental lapses. Yet New York recovered in the second half, mixing timely hitting with a bullpen that steadied a rotation that faced occasional rough patches. The club’s finish in 2025 continues a pattern of late-season resilience that has kept New York in the postseason conversation nearly every year for the past decade.

The final five days of the season promise more drama as teams jockey for position for the ALDS. For the Yankees, the immediate objective is simple: win games, hold or improve their wild-card standing, and set up a favorable path through October. The win against Chicago, though dramatic, is part of a larger narrative about a franchise that has often found a way to navigate uncertainty and still reach the sport’s biggest stage.