Yankees cap regular season with win over Pirates as attention shifts to postseason sprint

With the 162-game marathon finally complete, the Yankees are about to start a sprint for 11 wins.

But first, five days without any games.

Playing with most of their regulars out of the lineup on a rainy and raw day at the Stadium, the Yankees capped off the regular season Sunday with a 6-4 win over the Pirates.

Thanks to Alex Verdugo’s two-run single in the bottom of the eighth, the Yankees finished the year 94-68.

Having already secured the AL’s top seed on Saturday night, Sunday’s game was largely meaningless for the Yankees aside from being their final chance for real at-bats and innings pitched until next Saturday’s Game 1 of the ALDS, where they will face the winner of the wild-card series between the Orioles and Royals.

“It’s crazy — you go through 162 games, I feel like we’ve been through a ton as a team this year,” manager Aaron Boone said. “To end up with the best record in the American League, I think it’s something to be proud of. These guys should be proud that they’ve answered every challenge this year. It hasn’t always been easy, but proud of the fact that we’ve put ourselves in this position to take our shot. We’re excited about that.”

The only positioning left up for grabs involving the Yankees on Sunday was potentially finishing with a better record than the Phillies if they were to meet in the World Series (the Dodgers had already clinched the majors’ best record).

But the Phillies finished off a win over the Nationals by the bottom of the fourth inning in The Bronx, guaranteeing Philadelphia a better record regardless of what the Yankees did.