April The Yankees lost their Opening Day game on April 6 against
Toronto, losing 6–1. The Yankees only accumulated three total hits that first game, with a home run by
Brett Gardner accounting for the only run scored by the Yankees. On April 28, ace pitcher
Masahiro Tanaka was placed on the
15-day disabled list with a
tendinitis in his right wrist and a slight strain on his forearm. It was not connected to the elbow injury he suffered in the previous season. The Yankees would later finish the first month with a 13–9 record atop the American League East division. The success of the New York Yankees in April was a result of good hitting against opposing team's bullpens and good offense to keep games close. In fact, seven of the thirteen wins in April were decided by one or two runs. Mixing and matching both pitching and offense was also key in the part of manager
Joe Girardi. Some notable contributions came from players such as
Alex Rodriguez,
Jacoby Ellsbury,
Mark Teixeira,
Chris Young, Brett Gardner, Dellin Betances, and even from the Yankees closer
Andrew Miller. Miller, who had joined the Yankees during the off-season, had been impressive with eight saves in eight chances in the month of April. In April, Brett Gardner had also started the trend of having the team grow mustaches and it caught on.
May pitching on May 25, 2015. The Yankees beat the
Boston Red Sox 4–2 on May 2, during which Andrew Miller had set Yankees club history by securing nine saves in the first 23 games the Yankees had played in a season.
Mariano Rivera, the former Yankees closer who had retired following the 2013 season, had not even performed this feat during his 19-year career. It was the same game that Alex Rodriguez hit a pinch-hit home run off of Red Sox pitcher
Junichi Tazawa, his first as a pinch-hitter, and tied
Willie Mays for fourth on the all-time home run list at 660 homers. Rodriguez was emotional following the game. The Yankees not long after had announced they would not be paying Rodriguez the $6 million in bonuses that he was promised when he had signed a contract years before for reaching these marks. On May 19, Jacoby Ellsbury was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a sprained right knee. This was his first DL stint in his career with the Yankees. May did not turn out well for the Yankees as they finished the month winning 13 ball games but losing 16.
June June saw a turn in play for the Yankees, as they won seven straight to begin the month of June. In the month, various achievements were reached. Alex Rodriguez hit his 3000th career hit at home on June 19, hitting a home run to right field off from
Detroit Tigers pitcher
Justin Verlander. The achievement was similar to
Derek Jeter's 3000th hit in 2011, when he homered to left off from
Tampa Bay Rays pitcher
David Price. Price and Verlander happen to both be winners of the Cy Young Award. Ironically, Price and Verlander were both members of the Tigers organization the date of Rodriguez's 3000th hit. A few weeks later, Rodriguez was given the ball back from
Zack Hample, the fan who caught it. In the same month, the disabled list saw a bit of action. Notable to mention, Jacoby Ellsbury's injury took longer than expected to heal up. His rehab assignment began on June 29. In a home series against the
Philadelphia Phillies, pitcher
Iván Nova had returned to the hill for the first time since being injured in the prior season, winning for the Yankees and preventing a sweep. Another notable injury-related movement was the placement of closing pitcher Andrew Miller onto the disabled list early in June with a strained forearm muscle. The Yankees finished the month of June winning 15 games and losing 12.
July pitching in a game. When the
roster for the American League all-star team was announced, Dellin Betances and Mark Teixeira were revealed to be on the roster, with Teixeira replacing an injured
Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers. In addition, the final vote held
Brett Gardner as a candidate. Gardner later was announced as the replacement on the roster for an injured
Alex Gordon of the Royals. None of them were starters. On July 28 against the Texas Rangers, the Yankees score 21 unanswered runs – 11 of them in the 2nd inning – after giving up 5 runs in the first inning en route to a 21–5 win. On July 30, the
Seattle Mariners traded
Dustin Ackley to the Yankees for
José Ramírez and
Ramón Flores. The next day,
Garrett Jones was designated for assignment. (Jones was later re-signed in early August and then re-designated for assignment not long after) The Yankees finished July with 17 wins and 7 losses.
August The beginning of August saw the Yankees begin to struggle. With the Toronto Blue Jays in a hot streak since the end of July (where they revamped their team with a few big name players), a once respectable lead in the division had shrunk down to just a half game ahead of the Jays by the end of August 11. That night, the Yankees had traveled to
Cleveland to face the
Indians. Entering that game, the Yankees had gone 31 straight innings without scoring a run. Despite having a 4–2 lead in the 10th inning, closer Andrew Miller blew the save. The game was decided in the 16th inning, where
Michael Brantley had walked off for the Indians. The Yankees lost 5–4. They lost the next day and the Blue Jays took lead of the division by half a game. pitching his major league debut against the
Boston Red Sox on August 5. On August 5,
Luis Severino had his major league debut starting against the Red Sox. On August 13 the New York Yankees called up Greg Bird who went 0 for 5 in his debut. He got his first career hit on August 15 and his first and second career home runs on August 19. The Yankees retook the division the lead on August 14 in one of the most intense games of the season. Down 3–1 in the top of the eighth, Yankees outfielder Carlos Beltrán hit a pinch-hit three-run home run to put the Yankees up 4–3; closer Andrew Miller finished the game for the Yankees in a nail-biting fashion, striking out
Troy Tulowitzki on a slider after a 12-pitch at bat. This also stopped the Blue Jays' 11 game win streak. By the end of August 23, the lead was lost to the Jays once again after the Yankees lost three out of four games at home against the Cleveland Indians. This series also saw CC Sabathia suffer a knee injury that was declared as possibly season-ending with Sabathia on the DL. After walking off against the Houston Astros in the first game at home during a series starting on August 24, the Yankees became tied with the Jays in 1st place in the AL East after Toronto took an off-day. On August 25, the Yankees lost 15–1 to the Astros and lost first place once again to the Blue Jays, who became the first American League East team to win 70 wins. On August 28, the Yankees routed the
Atlanta Braves at
Turner Field 15–4 and gained their 70th win of the season. They finished the month with 14 wins and 14 losses.
September Mark Teixeira, who bruised his bone on his shin in August, was announced to be out for the rest of season after an MRI scan showed he had in fact fractured it. Nathan Eovaldi's regular season ended after suffering an elbow injury. The Yankees finished September with a record of 14–14.
October On October 1, the Yankees clinched a playoff spot for the first time since 2012 with a 4–1 win over the
Boston Red Sox. This was also their 10,000th franchise victory. The Yankees finished October with 1 win and 3 losses. Their final season record was 87–75, which was good enough to win the first American League Wild Card spot, earning the right to host the Houston Astros at
Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, October 6. However, a day prior, CC Sabathia left the team as he checked himself into an alcohol rehabilitation center. It was later announced by the Yankees that Sabathia would not be with the team during the postseason.
Wild Card loss The Yankees were shut out 3–0 in the
2015 American League Wild Card Game by the Houston Astros, in a contest that turned on two solo home runs against the game's losing pitcher
Masahiro Tanaka, hit by Houston's
Carlos Gómez and
Colby Rasmus. The winning pitcher was
Dallas Keuchel who tossed six scoreless innings.
Record vs. opponents ==Roster==