The New York Yankees' dramatic roller-coaster season has now led to an American League Wild Card Round berth after Aaron Judge's walk-off single lifted the team to a 1-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays in the regular-season finale on Sunday.

Few Yankees seasons have seen more twists and turns than the 2021 campaign.

An ugly 6-11 start sounded early alarm bells before they rebounded to win 22 of their next 30 behind the strength of their starting pitching, led by staff ace Gerrit Cole.

However, the Yankees' cold bats caught up to them, and they proceeded to lose 13 of their next 18 games to fall to 33-32. The Boston Red Sox swept them in the Bronx to cap that ugly stretch.

Boston also swept the Yankees in Fenway Park in late June to earn yet another big series win, and New York soon found itself 41-41 after 82 games. At this juncture, the Yanks were fourth in the AL East and 10 games back.

New York added two big bats in late July to help its floundering offense, picking up Texas Rangers outfielder Joey Gallo and Chicago Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo.

They helped the Yankees get back on track, although Rizzo missed some time after landing on the COVID-19 injured list. New York ended up going 25-5 over a 30-game stretch that included a 13-game win streak.

The last matchup was a 8-2 win over the Oakland Athletics on Aug. 27 that put the Yankees four games back of the Tampa Bay Rays for first in the East.

Then the bottom fell out.

They lost four straight and bounced back to win two before dropping seven straight games to effectively end their division title hopes. Almost nothing went right during this stretch, as the offense struggled and the pitching and defense followed suit.

Despite all this, the Yankees were only one game out of a wild-card spot on Sept. 13 following a 2-1 series loss to the New York Mets.

They proceeded to win four of five games entering Sept. 18 against Cleveland, who then outscored New York 22-4 over Saturday and Sunday.

New York pulled itself together, though, sweeping the Texas Rangers at home and the Red Sox on the road. Power-hitting Giancarlo Stanton, whose early-season slumps drew the ire of Yankees fans, had three home runs and 10 RBI during the Boston series.

A win in Toronto over the Blue Jays made it seven straight for the Yankees, who held the outright lead in the AL wild-card race at that juncture over the contending Red Sox, Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners.

Now the Yankees are officially back in the playoff mix as they search for their first World Series appearance (and title) since 2009.

The AL Wild Card Game will take place against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on Tuesday at 8:08 p.m. ET, and ESPN will televise the matchup.