The New York Yankees defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 5-2 at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Canada, on Tuesday to secure their 95th win of the 2022 MLB season. With a record of 95-59, the Yankees are 8.5 games ahead of the second-place Blue Jays in the American League (AL) East.

The AL East title is the 20th overall for the Yankees and first since 2019 when manager Aaron Boone led the team to win 103 games in the regular season.

"Really proud of the guys. It's the toughest division to win ... every team's a battle," Boone said after the victory. "You got to pack a lunch, as I like to say, when you're playing these teams. Especially at the start, probably most people picked a lot of other teams."

The Yankees had an excellent start to the 2022 regular season and were 69-34 before August. However, they've lost 14 of the following 20 games since then, watching the Houston Astros surpass them in the AL. Though the Yankees managed to bounce back in September to win 16 of 23 games by Tuesday, they are unlikely to surpass the Astros (102-53) as the regular season ends in about a week.

"We got off to a great start, obviously weathered the storm. These guys never really panicked or never lost that underlying confidence that even when we were going through some dark, tough times, that we were going to be able to get through it, and hopefully makes us stronger going forward," Boone said.

Yankees slugger Aaron Judge hit 0-for-1 with two runs to go along with four walks in Tuesday's win over the Blue Jays. He reached 60 home runs seven games ago but has been stuck on that number since then. He is two away from breaking the AL homer record set by Roger Maris of the Yankees in 1961.

"I'll take four walks for a win every single day," Judge said. "We can say we're the best team in the best division this year, and it wasn't easy. We took everyone's punches. It's not easy going through the American League East and survive and be the team. And I think we all understand that this is step one, and we want to win a championship, that's our goal."

As one of the most successful teams in MLB history, the Yankees have won 27 World Series titles, the most among all teams. The last time they reached the throne was in 2009.

"What a year it's been so far, we're definitely not done, but this is a great first step into the ultimate goal of going out there and winning a World Series," Judge said.