SEATTLE — The most urgent thing on the Yankees' schedule last October was organizational change.
This year, they can officially clear their schedule for playoff baseball.
The Yankees have bigger and better goals ahead of them, but they accomplished their first task on Wednesday night with a 2-1, 10-inning win over the Mariners at T-Mobile Park, clinching a spot in the postseason.
The champagne celebration was briefly postponed in the eighth inning when Clay Holmes gave up a game-tying home run to Justin Turner.
But Anthony Rizzo, who had two of the Yankees' three hits and scored two runs on the night, led off the top of the 10th with a powerful double to right field, sending home Jason Dominguez, the automatic runner from second base.
Ian Hamilton then closed out the game in the bottom of the inning thanks to a freakish double play.
Cal Lowry singled to get on base, sending runners to the corners, and then Hamilton struck out Randy Arozarena.
But at that moment, Arozarena's bat flew down the third base line and Julio Rodriguez dodged to avoid it.
This gave Austin Wells the opportunity to throw to third base, where he tagged Rodriguez out for the second out.
Hamilton then struck out Turner to end the game.
The Yankees (89-63), who were left out of the dance following a dismal 82-80 season last year, were scheduled to celebrate the accomplishment on Wednesday and then turn their attention to winning the division.
With 10 games remaining and having won their ninth of their last 12 games, they entered Wednesday night extending their lead over the Orioles in the AL East to a season-high five games and cutting the magic number for winning the division to six games.
“Whenever we get to play, I think it's important to be grateful for it,” coach Aaron Boone said before the game. “The season is tough, it's long, it's a struggle. We didn't make the playoffs last year, so maybe that makes us even more grateful for the opportunity to play. Hopefully we'll get to play, and we'll just keep taking it one step at a time.”
The Yankees have come this far thanks in large part to the superstar duo of Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, who have achieved historic feats throughout the season.
But they have also frequently found other ways to win, like they did Wednesday night.
Nestor Cortez continued his strong game by pitching six scoreless innings and it looked like that might be enough to hold off Rizzo's RBI single in the second inning.
But with one out in the eighth inning, Holmes threw a slider to center field, and Turner didn't miss it, smashing a solo home run inside the left field foul pole to tie the game at 1-1.
It was Holmes' 13th failed save of the season, extending his major league lead.
Two weeks after losing his job as a closer, Holmes took to the mound in the top of the seventh with two outs and a runner on second base, tying the score.
He walked Rodriguez, who was hurt by two questionable calls from home plate umpire Jim Wolf, but he got Lawrie to fly out and hang on.
Holmes then struck out Arozarena for the first out of the top of the eighth before Turner came on to help.
Boone then brought in Luke Weaver, who struck out four in 1 2/3 innings to send the game into extra innings.
Cortes, who is looking to crack the playoff starting rotation, has a 1.58 ERA over his last six games, including one extended outing when the Yankees used him as a relief pitcher in the middle of the rotation.
The Yankees took a 1-0 lead into the second inning thanks to Dominguez's performance.
The center fielder walked, stole second base, advanced to third on a misthrow by catcher Reilly and set up a chance to score on Rizzo's line drive single to right field.
