ARLINGTON -- The Yankees sprayed bubbly eight days ago to acknowledge clinching the American League East, then sipped more late on Tuesday evening, toasting individual achievements by Aaron Judge and Gerrit Cole. The season’s final afternoon offered an opportunity to breathe, reflect and prepare for the work ahead.

Only one countdown matters now: the 11 victories necessary for this team to be a World Series champion. The Yankees flipped their calendar into the playoffs on Wednesday, completing their regular season with a 4-2 loss to the Rangers at Globe Life Field.

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“Everybody in this room is excited,” said Judge, who didn't play in the regular-season finale. “Once we clinched the division in Toronto, we started looking ahead at what was to come. It’s an exciting time of year, and this is what we’re looking forward to. We got that first step out of the way, punching the division. Now it’s time for guys to rest up. I think this is going to be a fun group of guys to go to battle with.”

One night after Judge was crowned the American League’s new single-season home run king with No. 62 and Cole set a new franchise record with 257 strikeouts, the Yanks wrapped their regular season with a 99-63 record, concluding with 12 wins in their final 17 games.

New York’s next contest will be played at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, facing the winner of the Rays-Guardians AL Wild Card Series.

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“It’s rewarding when you go through a full season, all the work you put in,” manager Aaron Boone said. “You go through times of adversity and it’s always a grind. It’s always hard in this division, especially this year. To be the best in our division, there’s some satisfaction in that, but our group wants to win it all. That’s what we’re focused on now.”

Judge’s chase to shatter Roger Maris’ 61-year-old AL record garnered national attention over the final weeks of the regular season, but it was a remarkable year in many respects for this Yankees club. The roster was not widely projected to win its division for the first time since 2019, securing just the club’s second first-place AL East finish in the last decade.

“We’ve hit our goals, team-wise, to win the division,” said first baseman Anthony Rizzo. “There are little things that we’ve accomplished for the team to be proud of this year. There’s times where 162 gets really long towards the end, but this one flew by.”

It soared early, as the Yankees enjoyed a scorching start that saw them become the first Major League club to reach the 50-win plateau. They achieved the feat with a June 20 win over Tampa Bay that set their record at 50-17 (.746), sparking daily pace comparisons to the 114-win 1998 Yankees, the most dominant of Derek Jeter’s dynasty.

The Bombers were the toast of the July 19 All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium, counting a Major League-high six representatives on the AL roster, including Giancarlo Stanton, the game’s MVP. But Boone frequently cautioned his players not to fly too high, warning that “adversity is coming for you.” It arrived in the form of injuries and underperformance.

August was particularly brutal, yielding just 10 victories in 28 games (.357), the Yanks’ worst calendar month since September 1991 (a performance that mercifully ended the Stump Merrill era). With Boone and general manager Brian Cashman under public scrutiny, Judge attempted to drag his flagging club into the playoffs, helping correct its course.

“We hit some road bumps,” Stanton said. “We had to punch back. I think going through that will definitely help us come playoff time, because it’s not going to be easy.”

So they are here now, on the doorstep of the playoffs, eyeing the Cleveland/Tampa Bay matchup while also warily looking ahead to a potential showdown with the Astros. No one with an interlocking “NY” on their head or in their closet needs reminders that the defending AL champions ended the Yanks’ seasons in 2017 and ’19.

Those scars remain fresh for Judge, who said he didn’t hear the fans chanting, “We want Judge!” in the ninth inning, clamoring for one more at-bat. By that point, Judge had already closed the book on his ’22 campaign -- a .311 batting average, 62 home runs and 131 RBIs, video-game numbers that won’t mean much if they aren’t accompanied by No. 28.

“Historical or not, the regular season, it’s really getting you prepared and ready for the postseason,” Judge said. “Now we’ve got the regular season out of the way. It’s time to go out there, have fun and play our game like we’ve been doing all year.”