Yankees remain tied atop AL East as Giancarlo Stanton's bases-clearing double caps sweep of White Sox

Peter Sblendorio, New York Daily News on Sep 25, 2025

Published in Baseball

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NEW YORK — Giancarlo Stanton is as stoic as they come, so when he unleashed a fist pump after reaching second base, it served as a testament to the immense importance of Thursday’s game.

The celebration followed a go-ahead, three-run double by Stanton in the bottom of the fifth, which proved to be the game-winner in the Yankees’ 5-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox in the Bronx.

The Yankees (91-68) remain tied atop the American League East with the Toronto Blue Jays, who defeated the Boston Red Sox, 6-1, on Thursday night.

Toronto holds the tiebreaker over the Yankees, who will need to win at least one game more than the Blue Jays over the final three to claim the division.

But thanks to Boston’s loss, the Yankees can now finish no worse than in the AL’s top wild-card spot, guaranteeing there will be games in the Bronx this postseason.

The Yankees fell behind 3-1 in the top of the fourth when starter Carlos Rodón surrendered a two-run home run to Michael A. Taylor.

But Stanton answered an inning later when he drilled his one-out, bases-clearing double against left-handed reliever Tyler Gilbert down the left-field line, giving the Yankees a 4-3 lead.

Stanton ripped his 109-mph grounder under the glove of third baseman Curtis Mead, who would have had an easy, inning-ending double play had he corralled it. Instead, the clutch hit gave Stanton 59 RBIs in 74 games this year.

Austin Wells added an RBI double in the seventh to pad the Yankees’ lead.

That ended up being enough offense on a night Rodón limited Chicago — his original team — to three runs over six innings and struck out five in his final start of the regular season.

Rodón finished his third year with the Yankees with a 18-9 record, a 3.09 ERA and 203 strikeouts in 195 1/3 innings over 33 starts.

His second K in Thursday’s game made Rodón the sixth Yankees left-hander to record at least 200 strikeouts in a season, joining Whitey Ford, Al Downing, Ron Guidry, Randy Johnson and CC Sabathia.

Rodón tied Max Fried for this year’s team lead in innings, with that duo stepping up after ace Gerrit Cole underwent season-ending elbow surgery during spring training.

“I think it’s huge,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of Rodón and Fried’s workloads. “I find it very difficult, and things really have to line up for you, if you’re gonna have an overall good pitching staff — starters and relievers — if you’re not getting real innings from at least several members of a starting rotation.”

Aaron Judge drew a pair of intentional walks on Thursday, giving him 36 this year to set an American League single-season record. Judge finished 2 for 3 with the two walks, boosting his MLB-best average to .330 and his MLB-leading OPS to 1.140.

Luke Weaver, Devin Williams and David Bednar hurled a scoreless inning apiece to lock down the victory.

Thursday’s win was the Yankees’ fifth in a row and finished off a three-game sweep of the cellar-dwelling White Sox (58-101).

As it stands, the Yankees are the AL’s top wild-card team, with Boston (87-72) now four games behind and unable to catch them. Finishing atop the wild-card standings would mean the Yankees hosting a best-of-three series in the wild-card round next week.

But the Yankees have loftier aspirations.

After trailing by five games as recently as Sept. 16, the Yankees tied the Blue Jays on Wednesday, marking the first time since July 2 that they held a share of the division lead.

The division will now be decided over the weekend.

The Yankees’ final three games are against the Baltimore Orioles (75-84) in the Bronx. That series begins Friday, with Will Warren (8-8, 4.35 ERA) set to start for the Yankees and Trevor Rogers (9-2, 1.35 ERA) scheduled to pitch for the O’s.

Toronto is set to host the Tampa Bay Rays (77-82) this weekend.