TORONTO — The wait is finally over.
No, Aaron Judge didn’t tie Roger Maris’ home run record, but the Yankees clinched their first AL East title since 2019 and second since 2013 with a 5-2 win over the Blue Jays Tuesday night at Rogers Centre.
Now, the Yankees have eight games left to get themselves ready for the postseason, now that they’ve secured a first-round bye, as well as home-field advantage in the ALDS — and to see if Judge can hit his milestone home runs.
He’s gone seven games without a homer — his longest stretch since a nine-game drought in August — but the Yankees have won all but one of those games.
For a time, it seemed the Yankees were going to cruise to a division crown, building a 15 1/2-game lead on July 8, when they were 61-23 on the season.
But injuries and slumps hurt them in the second half of the season and two months later, that lead had dropped to just 3 ½ games over Tampa Bay on Sept. 9.
Since then, though, the Yankees have righted themselves amid Judge’s home run chase and after failing in their first attempt to seal the division on Monday, they took care of business Tuesday.
