Looking back at Yankees' top moments of 2019

NEW YORK -- It was another season filled with memorable events for the Yankees, who notched 103 regular-season victories to secure their first American League East title in seven years and swept the Twins in the AL Division Series before falling to the Astros in a six-game AL Championship Series.

Here are the Yankees’ top 10 moments of the season, as selected by MLB.com.

1. Sir Didi delivers
Oct. 5 vs. Twins
Didi Gregorius may not have produced the statistics he’d envisioned in an injury-shortened campaign, but he flashed the ability to deliver in a key October situation, belting a grand slam as part of a seven-run third-inning in the Yankees’ 8-2 victory over the Twins in ALDS Game 2. Gregorius stumbled out of the batter’s box, punctuating his fourth career postseason homer with a bat flip.

2. Hicks, to the sticks!
Oct. 18, 2019 vs. Astros
Aaron Hicks believed that his season was over in September, sitting on a couch in his Arizona home after having been told that his injured right elbow required Tommy John surgery. A month later, following an unlikely recovery, Hicks connected with a Justin Verlander offering to clang a three-run homer off the foul pole that provided the difference in the Yankees’ 4-1 ALCS Game 5 victory over the Astros.

3. AL East champions
Sept. 19 vs. Angels
The Yankees clinched their first division crown since 2012 with their 100th victory of the regular season, popping the bubbly after a 9-1 rout of the Angels that included three RBIs each from DJ LeMahieu and Brett Gardner. The Bombers wrapped up the division with eight games to spare while making manager Aaron Boone the first in history to win 100 games in each of his first two seasons.

4. CC3K
April 30 vs. D-backs
CC Sabathia reached a celebrated milestone in his final Major League season, becoming the 17th pitcher in history to record 3,000 strikeouts, and just the third left-hander behind Steve Carlton and Randy Johnson. Sabathia fanned D-backs catcher John Ryan Murphy, a former Yankee, in the third inning of New York’s 3-1 loss at Arizona’s Chase Field for the K that rolled his tally to 3,000.

5. O, Gleyber!
Aug. 12 vs. O's
There will almost certainly be a moment this offseason when Orioles manager Brandon Hyde wakes up in a cold sweat, his subconscious replaying some of Gleyber Torres’ domination of his team. Torres belted 13 homers against Baltimore, including a three-homer performance in a doubleheader sweep of the Birds. Nos. 12 and 13 came in an 11-8 Yanks win as Torres became the first player since Roger Maris to hit that many homers against a single opponent.

6. Air Aaron
July 24 vs. Twins
In what many speculated could be the game of the year across MLB, Hicks ranged into the left-center-field gap at Target Field, snaring Max Kepler’s drive for the final out of a wild 14-12, 10-inning Yankees victory over the Twins. The game featured five lead changes or ties in the final three innings, the last of which was provided by Torres' RBI single in the 10th.

7. London calling
June 29-30 vs. Red Sox
The first Major League games played in the United Kingdom will be remembered as a smashing success for the Yanks: 18 innings packed with offense that resulted in two victories over the Red Sox. Wearing their famed pinstripes despite being the ‘road’ team at London Stadium, New York outscored Boston, 29-21, over the contests, including riding a nine-run seventh inning to the sweep in the finale.

8. Gardner and Ford go back to back
Sept. 1 vs. A's
Gardner tied the game with a ninth-inning homer, and rookie Mike Ford came off the bench to belt the game-winning blast off Liam Hendriks, resulting in a 5-4 Yankees victory that stunned the A's for the second consecutive day in walk-off fashion. The heroics ensured that the Yanks would be the first Major League team to reach 90 victories in 2019.

9. DJ cues the music
Aug. 31 vs. A's
LeMahieu belted a walk-off homer in the 11th inning off the A’s Lou Trivino, ending nearly four hours of baseball and powering a 4-3 victory that the Yanks celebrated with Gatorade baths amid Frank Sinatra’s recorded vocals. It was New York’s first victory over Oakland in five tries, and it ended an afternoon that had seen LeMahieu go 0-for-4 with three strikeouts to that point.

10. Gardy joins the century club
April 17 vs. Red Sox
Gardner waited a dozen years for his 100th career home run, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. The longest-tenured Bomber hit a seventh-inning grand slam off Brandon Workman, lifting the Yankees to a 5-3 victory over the Red Sox. It was the first occasion for the Yanks to transform their swanky clubhouse into the thumping, fog-filled nightclub of Club 161, but not the last.

BONUS: Savages in the box
July 18 vs. Rays
Boone unintentionally created a rallying cry for his club during an argument with home-plate umpire Brennan Miller, proclaiming that his hitters are “savages in the … box.” The tirade was captured by television microphones and widely distributed on social media. Within a week, Yankees players were wearing T-shirts with various incarnations of the “Savages” moniker.