The New York Yankees settled for 99 wins in the regular season and the American League record 62 home runs for slugger Aaron Judge.
Their focus has already shifted to trying to win their 28th World Series title, and first since 2009.
“This is the fun part of the year,” Judge said.
Judge was out of the lineup a day after hitting his American League record 62nd homer, and the Yankees lost their regular-season finale 4-2 against the Texas Rangers on Wednesday to finish with 99 wins. At the beginning of July, New York was on pace for 118 wins, four more than the franchise record set in 1998.
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“AL East champs. I mean, that’s what we hope for in the regular season. You know, we put ourselves in a good spot now. So I guess first mission accomplished in that regard,” manager Aaron Boone said. “There’s some satisfaction in that. But, you know, our group ... we want to win it all. And that’s what we’re focused on now.”
Jose Trevino homered for the AL East champion Yankees (99-63), who missed a chance to reach 100 wins for the 22nd time and give the major leagues five 100-win teams for the first time. They get an extended break before opening the AL Division Series at home on Tuesday.
While Judge made his case to play in the regular-season finale, Boone insisted on a break for after the slugger played 55 consecutive games, and 157 overall, in the pursuit of Roger Maris’ single-season home run mark that had stood since 1961.
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Fans in the crowd of 28,056 chanted “We Want Judge! We Want Judge!” in the ninth inning, hoping to get to see him get a shot at one more homer.
“Not today. He got plenty of them all year,” Boone said. “Hopefully, we’ve got a lot left now in the postseason.”
Judge finished with a .311 batting average, second in the AL behind the .316 of Minnesota’s Luis Arraez. Judge led the other Triple Crown categories with 62 homers and 131 RBIs.
Charlie Culberson and Jonah Heim homered for the Rangers (68-94), who wrapped up their sixth consecutive losing season. Texas was 17-31 after interim manager Tony Beasley took over Aug. 15, when fourth-year manager Chris Woodward was fired and two days before the president of baseball operations and longtime general manager Jon Daniels was also let go.
Texas had lost seven games in a row before its 3-2 win in the second game of a doubleheader Tuesday night.
“It is good to be able to end on a winning note. Really we played a good series,” Beasley said. “ That was good for the guys to come out, compete until the end and not quit and not give up. ... That’s a testament to the guys in that clubhouse and the character in the clubhouse and what they’re made out of. So those are positive signs of moving forward.”
Rangers rookie Glenn Otto (7-10) struck out five and walked two while allowing two runs and four hits over six innings. Matt Moore, the third Texas reliever, worked the ninth for his fifth save in six chances.
New York starter Domingo Germán (2-5) gave up four runs over 4 1/3 innings, ending his career-best streak of 12 consecutive starts allowing three earned runs or fewer.
Trevino’s solo homer in the fourth inning, his 11th overall but first in 40 games, put the Yankees up 2-1. Texas got even on Heim’s 16th homer in the bottom half, then went ahead in the fifth when Bubba Thompson had an RBI double and scored on Marcus Semien’s single.
Veteran utility player Culberson, who played for only the third time in the past 32 games, hit his second homer in the third.
