NEW YORK -- The Yankees brought their bags to Yankee Stadium for the final time in 2020 on Sunday morning, ready to board a plane pointed … somewhere. With their postseason destination still up in the air, Aaron Hicks said that his teammates were not fretting about a multitude of travel scenarios.

“Focusing on playing today’s game and trying to prepare for the postseason, I feel like that’s all you need to do,” Hicks said. “If you try to play postseason wizard and figure it all out, it’s not going to work. You’re better off just playing today’s game and preparing to get ready for a flight.”

The Yankees can secure second place in the American League East and the American League’s No. 5 seed with a victory over the Marlins or a Blue Jays loss to the Orioles.

As they prepared to take the field on Sunday, the Yankees could still play the White Sox, Indians, Twins or Rays in the Wild Card Series. If the season ended on Saturday, they would have been set to travel to Chicago and face the White Sox.

The Yankees would only face the Rays, against whom they were 2-8 this year, if they fell to the No. 8 seed. A victory over the Marlins would remove any chance of that; if the Blue Jays win and the Yankees lose, Toronto would own a tiebreaker by virtue of having a better record against divisional opponents over the previous 20 games.

“It’s kind of interesting, kind of exciting,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “There’s four options out there that we could be playing, it’s all going on at the same time, and it all unfolds at the same time.”

Hicks certainly would not trade places with Ben Tuliebitz, the Yankees' traveling secretary who is responsible for arranging the club’s travel to one of those four cities. Hicks said that his biggest challenge of the 2020 season was adjusting to playing in front of no fans, hoping that Sunday will mark the final time he has to do so in the Bronx.

“As a player, sometimes you have those days where you're just not in the mood -- you're kind of tired, you're exhausted and the fans get you going,” Hicks said. “To not have that support and have to be self-driven is just kind of tough.”

Whomever the Yankees draw, Hicks said that he believes they will be favored by virtue of having ace right-hander Gerrit Cole ready to go in Game 1. Masahiro Tanaka will start Game 2, to be followed by either Deivi García or J.A. Happ in a potential Game 3.

“I would say we're pretty strong, especially with Cole pitching Game 1,” Hicks said. “I feel really excited and confident with him being on the mound. I feel like us hitters are going to be ready to go when it comes to the postseason and playing the first game.”

Barreled up
Giancarlo Stanton ripped a game-tying RBI double in the fifth inning of Saturday’s 11-4 victory over the Marlins, a blast that came off the slugger’s bat at 112.9 mph.

Though Stanton has again dealt with injuries this season, the drive was a good sign of his health heading into the playoffs and a reminder of how quickly he can change a game with one swing. In his first nine games since returning from the injured list, Stanton was 7-for-35 (.200) with four doubles, a homer and four RBIs.

“He had a few games, mostly in Buffalo, where I felt like he struggled,” Boone said. “I felt like we saw some encouraging things yesterday from him, getting in better counts, smoking the double and having a walk. Hopefully, he's in a place where he can go impact like we know he's capable of in the postseason.”

This date in Yankees history
Sept. 27, 1938: An ailing Lou Gehrig hit his 493rd and final Major League home run, off the Senators' Dutch Leonard.