After a two-year hiatus, the most decorated team in baseball history is heading back to the postseason.
Carlos Beltran, Greg Bird, and Robert Refsnyder hit solo home runs and CC Sabathia pitched five solid innings as the New York Yankees prevailed 4-1 over the Boston Red Sox on a rainy Thursday night at Yankee Stadium to clinch an American League wild-card berth.
"It's extremely gratifying," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said postgame. "It wasn't easy. These guys to me did it a lot on just heart and hard work. We had a lot of injuries. We have age on this team. We dealt with a lot of stuff. But they always kept fighting, and they always seemed to bounce back."
Beltran paced the Yankees' three-homer attack with his 19th blast in the second inning, and after Brendan Ryan delivered an RBI single to plate an additional run in the frame, Bird and Refsnyder added late homers to send New York back to the playoffs for the first time since 2012, and also collect the 10,000th win in club history.
(Videos courtesy: MLB.com)
Sabathia held the Red Sox, who entered on a six-game winning streak, in check through five frames, allowing one run on six hits on 96 pitches, before turning the ball over to relievers Adam Warren and Dellin Betances to pitch the team into the postseason with four combined scoreless frames.
"It feels like an eternity," Sabathia said about the team's playoff drought. "To be able to pop champagne, celebrate, to exhale for a second ... this is good."
The Yankees, who still have to play for home advantage in the wild-card game over the next three days, have captured 27 World Series titles and 40 American League pennants in their illustrious history.
