NEW YORK — The Yankees locked up the playoffs a while ago. They are locked into the second seed in the American League and the first-round bye that comes with it. They can’t overtake the Astros for home-field advantage in these final seven games. And Aaron Judge is still sitting on 61 home runs after going without a home run Friday night in the Yankees’ 2-1 loss to the Orioles at Yankee Stadium.
But there is still some importance to these last games for the Yankees (96-60). They have plenty of question marks about their playoff roster makeup that they need to figure out over this final regular-season series at the Stadium and the four games in Texas. They need to find answers about DJ LeMahieu, Aroldis Chapman and Zack Britton among others before they make the decisions on who will be playing for them in the postseason.
Judge went 1 for 2 with a single and three walks, but is still tied with Roger Maris for the most home runs hit in a single season by an American League or Yankees player.
