The New York Yankees seemingly forgot how to play baseball for two months — yet here they are, tied with the Blue Jays for the division lead on the last day of the regular season. New York doesn’t own the tiebreaker, so they’ll need to take care of business against Baltimore and hope Toronto drops their finale to Tampa Bay.
Sunday will decide who claims the second seed and a first-round bye — and who gets stuck in the Wild Card.
The Yankees took the first two games against the Orioles and enter Sunday with ten wins in their last 11 games. They haven’t lost since Sept. 19 — but fittingly, the team to beat them that day was Baltimore. Despite being at rock bottom of the AL East this year, the Orioles are still dangerous and the Yanks will have to bring their A-game to get the job done.
First pitch in the Bronx is scheduled for 3:05 p.m. ET. New York is a -194 moneyline favorite on DraftKings Sportsbook, and the total is set at 8.5 runs.
Orioles at Yankees, preview
Kyle Bradish is expected to start for the O’s. The 29-year-old right-hander underwent Tommy John surgery last year, but has been lights-out since returning to the major league rubber in August. Over five starts, Bradish has posted an extraordinary 2.25 ERA with a 1.00 WHIP and 39 strikeouts in 28 innings of work. He has racked up nine or more strikeouts on three separate occasions and has yet to allow more than two earned runs in an outing.
Albeit a small sample size, Bradish has boasted an impeccable strikeout rate (35.8%) while generating plenty of whiffs and chases. However, he’s struggled with walks and has had difficulty keeping the ball on the ground — a cause for concern against the most powerful offense in baseball. Still, he held his own in a previous encounter against the Yankees on Sept. 21, allowing just one run over six innings on two hits and two walks with nine strikeouts.
Meanwhile, New York hands the ball off to the reigning AL Rookie of the Year, Luis Gil. Sidelined with a lat strain until August, the 27-year-old righty’s sophomore campaign has been somewhat of a mixed bag. His 3.29 ERA across 52 innings is undoubtedly solid, but a 4.80 xERA and 4.24 FIP suggest quite a bit of good fortune. Gil is getting hit hard, and his strikeout numbers are down significantly from last year. His chase rate (20.8%) and walk rate (13.8%) rank in the bottom first percentile of the league.
Still, Gil has posted a 2.78 ERA across four September starts, with the Yankees winning each game. On Sept. 23, he allowed two runs (on a two-run shot) over six innings on four hits and two walks with three strikeouts.
Orioles at Yankees pick, best bet
Baltimore’s 2025 campaign has been one engulfed by disappointment. The team’s promising young core has largely regressed, while the only two Orioles to post an OPS over .800 — Ryan O’Hearn and Ramon Laureano — were traded at the deadline. In September, Baltimore’s .631 team OPS is tied with Pittsburgh for the third-worst in baseball.
The Yankees, meanwhile, have completely lived up to their reputation as the Bronx Bombers. New York has crushed 272 home runs this season — 32 more than the next closest team — with an MLB-leading .787 team OPS. Seven Yankees have hit over 20 homers this season, and Cody Bellinger is just one shy of joining Jazz Chisholm Jr., Trent Grisham, and Aaron Judge as the fourth player in Pinstripes to reach 30.
Judge has strengthened his case for a second-straight MVP by clobbering three long balls in his last three games — including a two-run shot in Friday’s contest that extended his running total to 53. The Judgian blast was sandwiched between a pair of no-doubters from Giancarlo Stanton, who has decimated 24 homers in just 76 games.
