Yankees clinch playoff berth with thrilling 10-inning win over Mariners

SEATTLE — The most pressing item on the Yankees’ calendar last October was an organizational deep dive. This year, they can officially clear their schedules for playoff baseball. There are bigger and better goals on their agenda, but the Yankees took care of the first order of business on Wednesday night by clinching a postseason berth with a 2-1, 10-inning win over the Mariners at T-Mobile Park. The champagne celebration was temporarily delayed after Clay Holmes gave up a game-tying home run to Justin Turner in the eighth inning. But Anthony Rizzo, who had two of the Yankees’ three hits and drove in both of their runs on the night, led off the 10th by ripping a double to right field to score automatic runner Jasson Dominguez from second base. Ian Hamilton then closed it out in the bottom of the inning with some help from a bizarre double play.Cal Raleigh had led off with a single to put runners on the corners before Hamilton got Randy Arozarena to strike out.

But as he did, Arozarena’s bat went flying down the third-base line, with Julio Rodriguez dancing out of the way to avoid it.That allowed Austin Wells a chance to throw down to third, where he picked off Rodriguez for the second out. Hamilton then struck out Turner to end it. After getting left out of last year’s dance following a miserable 82-80 season, the Yankees (89-63) planned on celebrating Wednesday’s accomplishment and then turning their attention to the division.

With their ninth win in the last 12 games, they opened up their AL East lead over the Orioles to a season-high five games on Wednesday night with 10 games to play, trimming their magic number to clinch the division to six games. “Anytime you get in, I think it’s important to appreciate that,” manager Aaron Boone said before the game.“The season is a gauntlet, it’s long, it’s a grind.

Last year we didn’t make the playoffs, so maybe that even gives you a heightened, more appreciation for an opportunity to ge...