New York Yankees Clinch Wildcard, Will Have Play-in Game Tuesday

The Bronx Bombers are back. On Thursday, night the New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox 4-1 to clinch a wildcard spot in the American League playoffs.

The Yankees celebrated their wildcard clinching victory in a subdued but very happy champagne celebration. By most standards, the Yankees have overachieved this season and exceeded the expectations of most.

Alex Rodriguez the veteran DH said during the celebration that no one thought the team would do anything this season, but the players and coaches came together over the past eight months and have reached the postseason.

This year followed the exit of long time shortstop Derek Jeter and the return of the controversial Rodriguez and the Yankees fought their way to the playoffs.

They will have a play-in game next Tuesday.

The win for New York on Thursday was No. 10,000 for the franchise and gave the club time to exhale over the weekend.

The Yankees would not be in the position they are in today without the veteran Rodriguez. Brian Cashman the general manager for the Yankees did not make many changes to the offense from last season. However, Rodriguez came back from his season long suspension to hit 33 home runs thus far and is one of the biggest reasons the Yankees will have that play-in game on Tuesday.

New York can now be amongst the final eight major league teams after all the struggles of this season if they can win on Tuesday.

If the Yankees win one game of their final three in the regular season or Houston loses one, the Tuesday game will be played in New York.

Who their opponent will be is still up in the air. Houston has the inside track, but the Los Angeles Angels and Minnesota Twins are still mathematically alive.

One of the few holdovers from the last New York World Series winning team in 2009 is Brett Gardner. He said after the Thursday game that it felt good to reach this point again. He even made his teammates who wore goggles not to burn their eyes with champagne to take them off so they could feel it and sense what it was like to reach the playoffs.

Rodriguez said he did not even know if he would make the team during spring training, but he ended up being the No. 3 hitter and was likely the biggest reason this bunch of overachievers are where they are today.