Yanks clinch a meager prize, the postseason. But let's give credit to a NY team that is not the Mets.

Well, it took nearly 150 games, but here we are - tickets punched for a three-game October rumble with Boston - where the fate of humanity can hinge on a bloop. 

That's baseball, Suzyn. For six tortuous months, you crash walls and snap hamstrings like bungee cords, and then everything boils down to three games - maybe two - in a gathering darkness, which the Dodgers will rule, anyway.   

With the AL's second-best record, to fall in the wild card round would make 2026 a colossal Yankee disappointment. But today, as the Yankees nurse their hangovers, let us give thanks for a franchise that, all things considered, is not the Mets. 

Ten takeaways:

1. Instead of Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto, the Yankees are led by Aaron Judge and Gerrit Cole. End of discussion.

2. You could tease the stats for 2026 and argue that Lindor and Soto had superior seasons, but in terms of leadership, there's no comparison.

3. Soto might someday grow into the role of a de facto captain. He's 27 and will probably hit his way into Cooperstown. But he shall never escape the burden of being baseball's highest-paid player. That's not nuthing.

4. With a lockout coming this winter, and the entire 2027 season in jeopardy, Soto's name will become shorthand for "overpaid." And depending on how the lockout ends, Soto might wear that "highest paid" albatross for the rest of his career.

5. The huge reception Pete Alonzo received at Citifield - Mets fans deliriously chanted his name - shows the hunger for team loyalty beyond the bottom dollar. I wonder if Steve Cohen heard. 

6. Who can explain the Yankee mastery of Minnesota? But last night, you felt it all game, even when the middle innings looked like a vintage Yankee loss. (I.E. no hitting.) Somehow, you knew their bullpen would crumble. 

7. Great to see Aaron Judge finally hit that HR, signifying his return. He has 18. He needs at least 20 - pulling ahead of Jazz Chisholm (19), Paul Goldschmidt (18) and Trent Grisham (18). Of course, Ben Rice has 38. (Tied for 3rd in AL.)  

8. Some Gammonites are calling for Cam Schlittler to be the AL MVP, in part because Ron Guidry got screwed out of it in 1979. Certainly, Schlittler deserves the Cy Young, but let's not put him on a pedestal guaranteed to topple.

9. Last night, George Lombard Jr.'s double launched the Yankee rally. He's been in a deep slump, that period of Stygian darkness that all rookies experience. The Yankees must play him at SS. And he must hit.

10. There is ridiculous talk of Giancarlo Stanton returning as a late-inning pinch hitter. Dear God. This is insanity. Are the Yankees swallowing their own bullshit? We've seen Judge battling to come back. Why subject Giancarlo - and the fans - to shaking off so much rust? Bad idea.