NEW YORK — Jose Caballero wore black goggles on his forehead and the team’s championship belt over his shoulder. Holding a bottle of champagne, he closed his eyes and danced to ‘NUEVAYoL’ by Bad Bunny. Yankees players shouted at Caballero and sprayed him with Budweiser.
The newest member of the team, Caballero joined the Yankees in a midgame trade during the final minutes of the July 31 trade deadline. He said goodbye to his old life as a Tampa Bay Ray, gathered his belongings, and walked across the Yankees’ underground tunnel. Two months later, he eclipsed his potential as a Bronx Bomber when he ended a gritty, nine-pitch at-bat with a bloop single to center field that sent the Yankees to the postseason.
It was Caballero who walked it off for the Yankees in a dramatic 3-2 win over the White Sox on Tuesday night in the Bronx. It hasn’t taken him long to become an integral part of the Yankees’ fabric.
“It’s a group of guys that work hard together,” Caballero said, blinking his eyes in an attempt to get the beer and champagne out. “We have one thing in mind: to be in the postseason and to win it all.
A circle formed around rookie outfielder Jasson Dominguez. His teammates yelled “Hey! Hey! Hey!” as Dominguez danced and swayed next to Paul Goldschmidt’s 10-year-old son, Jake, who was soaking up every minute of the Yankees’ playoff-clinching celebration wearing a cheesy grin on his face.
Second baseman Jazz Chisholm rifled through a cart of Budweisers, searching for an unopened bottle to spray one of his teammates. He insisted that the party scene happening around him was subdued.
“This isn’t crazy,” Chisholm shouted over the blaring music. “When we win the division, that will be crazy. This is normal.”
To that end, the Yankees’ longtime rival, of all teams, helped them out. The Boston Red Sox defeated the Blue Jays, 4-1, on Tuesday night, keeping New York’s division dreams alive for at least one more day. New York is one game behind Toronto for the AL East crown. But they’re technically two games behind in the standings, since the Blue Jays hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Yankees.
So, this wasn’t exactly how the Yankees wanted to get into the playoffs, and their low-key (ish) celebration was a reminder of that. The group that assembled in the clubhouse was smaller, with veteran slugger Giancarlo Stanton notably absent from the festivities.
“Our main goal is winning the division,” Chisholm said. “We’re not going to feel as satisfied unless we win the division. Going to the playoffs is great and all, but we want to win the division.”
Still, Yankees captain Aaron Judge said his teammates have earned the right to party. In complete agreement, they gathered around him and chanted “MVP! MVP! MVP!”
“Even when we finally finish the deal, we’re still going to want more,” Judge said. “I don’t want to take this opportunity for granted. We got a special group in here. A lot of guys that might not be back wearing pinstripes. It’s a long season. You’re playing 162 games. You gotta celebrate it when you come to a point like this.
“The boys are still fired up. They know what’s ahead of them. We’ll take care of business. We’ll take care of business.”
As Yankees manager Aaron Boone often reminds the media, his club is held to a higher standard. In New York, expectations are grander, and every mistake is magnified. So it was fitting that the Yankees’ ninth-inning rally on Tuesday began with a double off the bat of shortstop Anthony Volpe, who was criticized throughout the summer for his struggles at the plate and his errors in the dirt. When the situation got really bad, Caballero, added to the team for his speed and versatility, took away some of Volpe’s playing time at short.
The Yankees were one strike away from being defeated by the White Sox when left-hander Brandon Eisert threw a wild pitch. Volpe sprinted across home plate to tie the game at 2-2 and the crowd of 38,318 stood on its feet and cheered for the shortstop. It was a reminder that, for all the Yankees’ faults and problems this year, things can change quickly around here when the Yankees are playing good baseball.
“The expectation here is to win,” outfielder Cody Bellinger said. “This is the first step. We’re playing really well, but ultimately, we know we have a lot more to do.”
The Yankees’ path to the postseason was fueled by dissatisfaction, a feeling that was born from their meltdown in last year’s World Series.
“Every day I think about it,” Chisholm said of losing last year’s World Series to the Dodgers. “When I talk about it, I kind of get upset because it’s just like, I want to win the World Series. I want that ring. So I can’t wait until the playoffs are here.”
No one in the Bronx will forget what happened in the fifth inning of Game 5 — that is, until the Yankees replace that memory with a championship title. The domino effect of defensive miscues in that critical inning helped shape this year’s playoff-bound roster.
From the Yankees’ front-office war room to within their clubhouse walls, everyone in the organization knew they had to improve on the basepaths and on defense to increase their chances of winning and shore up their pitfalls. Their sharpened defense from new additions like third baseman Ryan McMahon, Bellinger, and Caballero has helped the Yankees play some of their best baseball in the second half of the season.
The Bombers own a major league-best 29-14 record since August 6. They are a season-high 21 games over .500. Even without injured ace Gerrit Cole and last year’s sparkplug, Juan Soto, the Yankees still look capable of being the team to beat in October.
“I think the balance of the team is slightly better than last year,” Cole said. “We have a lot more speed, and we have some contact-oriented players. Up and down the lineup, our OPS is higher than it was last year — certainly when I’m looking at other teams’ lineups on any given day, we generally have a better OPS one-through-nine. Starting pitching has performed well. The top three guys have done exceptional this year and the two younger guys are stepping up as of late. So looking at the rotation right now, it looks like it’s firing on all cylinders overall.”
All-Star left-handers Max Fried and Carlos Rodon are a formidable 1-2 punch atop the rotation. Closer David Bednar and his 2.49 ERA since joining the Yankees at the trade deadline are ready-made for New York’s bright lights. The Yankees bullpen, with a stabilized Devin Williams and Luke Weaver, is beginning to look like it can hold up against the top offenses in the league. And there are, of course, the undeniable benefits of a healthy Judge in the lineup — paired with the postseason heroics of Stanton.
The job’s not done for the Yankees. But now, the path is clear. They’re one step closer to avenging the missteps of last October.
“We are in the playoffs,” Boone addressed the team in the clubhouse. “We got a lot more to do, right?”
The manager didn’t need a response. Yankees players bounced on their feet, waiting for Boone to finish before taking their thumbs off the tops of the bottles they were shaking.
“Enjoy this,” Boone said. “Celebrate this right now. Come get ‘em tomorrow.
“Let’s go!”
Deesha Thosar covers Major League Baseball as a reporter and columnist for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.
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