After missing the postseason last year, the Yankees popped bottles to celebrate getting back.
The Yanks (89-63) became the first American League team to clinch a berth in the 2024 MLB playoffs Wednesday night with their 2-1 win in 10 innings over the Mariners in Seattle, and they let loose with some champagne afterward, as videos and photos from the visitors’ clubhouse show.
Jazz Chisholm Jr., the Yankees’ big midseason acquisition, streamed the team’s celebration on Instagram Live, with Juan Soto featured prominently in the boozy bash.
At one point, the Prime Video postgame showed showed Chisholm getting Budweiser poured on him while his protective goggles were up on his forehead and he said, “I can’t see.”
Soto paused his clubhouse interview with YES Network’s Meredith Marakovits for a dance break.
Chisholm also had some friendly banter for captain Aaron Judge at one point, telling him, “How are you still here? The person that you expect to be gone first.”
Earlier Wednesday, reliever Tommy Kahnle said during an appearance on “Foul Territory” that it would be up to Judge as to whether the team would pop bottles for clinching a playoff berth, or whether they’d wait until they potentially clinched the AL East. They now own a five-game lead over the Orioles in the division.
“If that’s what we’re doing tonight, I’ll obviously be popping some champagne,” Kahnle said.
He did more than that, as at one point he was at the center of a circle of Yankees teammates drenching him in a champagne shower as he embraced the moment, raising his arms and rocking his head.
“This is him in his natural habitat, I swear,” Chisholm said of Kahnle on his livestream.
Clearly Judge felt it was the right moment to celebrate, though he’s also well aware that there’s plenty left to play for.
“We definitely know the job’s not finished — we’re hunting this division — but getting an opportunity to punch our ticket back into the postseason after last year missing out, it means a lot,” Judge said amid the champagne-soaked celebration. “We got a special group here. The boys are definitely excited, but they know the mission is ahead of them.”
The Yankees almost didn’t get a chance to celebrate Wednesday as Clay Holmes gave up a game-tying home run to Justin Turner in the eighth inning before Anthony Rizzo drove in his second run of the game with a 10th-inning double.
The next step for the Yankees is attempting to secure their second AL East crown in three years after the Orioles won it last year, and then, of course, win their first World Series since 2009.
If they pull that off, expect the celebrations to be much rowdier than Wednesday’s.