Capitalize on Cohesion in the Bronx

 “That’s one thing the past couple years we struggled at is kind of finishing out series, and sweeping series, so we just try to make it a point. Pregame today we talked about it just ‘hey we got to close out a series’ and that’s what’s going to make the difference between winning our division or end up tied and losing it.”

Those were comments made by Yankee Captain Aaron Judge postgame on Saturday about the opening series sweep of the San Francisco Giants. The Yankees in 2025 swept 13 series overall but had three other opportunities to sweep a series and they dropped the final game of the series. They also had a chance against the Rays in the middle of April to sweep a four-game set in Tampa and lost on a walk-off in the 10th innings. And perhaps the game that should really haunt the Yankees, the loss in the series opener against the Colorado Rockies in Colorado at the end of May. A game in which if they won, the tiebreaker against Toronto is null and void and the Yankees win the division—not having to play in the American League Wild Card Series and having home field in the Division Series. That game ended up changing the entire season and everyone at the time knew that it would come back to bite the Bombers, and it did.

But that was last year. In 2026 the Yankees haven’t lost in three games. For a series, they accomplished a championship style goal of finishing off a series sweep. To start the season the run-it-back Yankees look like they are on a mission to right the wrong of last year. “This was a team. A team that played for one another… they truly became a close team and a good team.” That was what Yankee manager Aaron Boone said following the Game 5 loss in the ALDS last October.

One thing that the fanbase and the media covering the team didn’t bring up at all over the course of what was branded as a lackluster offseason was the cohesion that the ball club was bringing back in that clubhouse. That is perhaps the most overlooked and undervalued part of all of sports. To have a group that wants to fight for one another, falling short of that goal, and the fire that it breeds—especially in professional athletes. That desire to get back on the field and fight for the guy next to you could be the reason why the 2026 group finally wins the Yankees first championship since 2009.

For a series, we can lean on that narrative. But as Boone put it in his postgame sitting in the visiting clubhouse in Oracle Park chuckling through the end of this remark “wins are always hard to come by you take ‘em when you can get ‘em, but it’s March.”