Now the real work begins for rookie manager

T HERE was a refreshing touch of autumn in the air Saturday at Yankee Stadium. The question is: How deep into autumn will the Yankees play?

It took the Yankees 11 innings, but they finally got past the embarrassingly bad Orioles, 3-2, on Aaron Hicks’ RBI-double that scored Didi Gregorius. Combined with the Rays’ 5-2 loss to the Blue Jays, Hicks’ hit put the Yankees in the wild-card game.

The Yankees moved to 95-59, which is a tremendous record — but a lot of those wins came against bad teams. The Yankees will not be playing any team like the Orioles come October.

First-year manager Aaron Boone called the Yankees’ postgame champagne celebration “organic.’’ Yes, Joe Girardi is long gone and Boone gets his chance at the brass ring.

Question marks are everywhere, but Boone said he believes the Yankees are coming together at the right time. The biggest question mark continues to be the poor play of catcher Gary Sanchez. Boone deemed Sanchez his wild-card catcher Saturday, and it’s likely J.A. Happ will get the start in that game.

Sanchez, batting eighth, responded by having another bad game, going 0-for-4 with two strikeouts to drop his average to .182. He had another passed ball, his 15th, and a throwing error that led to a Baltimore run in the third. It would have been two runs, because Sanchez was too far from home after making the bad throw, but pitcher Lance Lynn saved the day, taking Gleyber Torres’ one-hopper to the plate to get Steve Wilkerson.

Boone appears to be making a huge mistake sticking with Sanchez but the manager noted: “Tomorrow is a fresh start and I think that is my message, especially to him but to all our guys. The opportunity to play in the postseason and I’ve experienced this, you can’t get caught up in what just happened because the next play, the next day is so important.

“The script can change in a hurry,’’ Boone said. “It’s really important that all of us and our guys focus on that. You’re going to get some humble pie even if you go on to win a championship. It’s going to be tough and you’ve got to be able to turn the page really, really well, and I think the teams that do that the best usually survive this thing.’’

Sanchez has had trouble catching fastballs and catching up to fastballs while batting. One defensive mistake by Sanchez could end the season.

Boone said the Yankees’ internal numbers show Sanchez has hit “into some tough luck.’’

That’s a handy excuse. Sanchez insisted he doesn’t look at the numbers.

“Winning for me is everything,’’ Sanchez said through an interpreter. “Stats and the many different numbers that come with playing baseball, they don’t mean anything unless you win.’’

Sanchez is right about that. The Yankees must win the wild-card game against the Athletics or this will be a failure of a season. Giancarlo Stanton, a playoff rookie, has to get it together and Aroldis Chapman has to get his velocity back. Aaron Judge must find his home run stroke. There are many questions facing these Yankees.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do but we are not done yet,’’ Judge said. “This is just the first step. Our main goal is to win the World Series.’’

Judge pointed to rookies Miguel Andujar and Gleyber Torres and miracle-man Luke Voit, who hit another home run Saturday. Judge told Voit during the celebration, “We wouldn’t be in this position right now if it wasn’t for you.’’

Voit took the subway to the Stadium on Saturday, ran into trouble because of construction, but eventually made it. These Yankees remain under construction.

The Yankees got to pour champagne Saturday. Will it be more than once? Getting the home wild-card game is the next goal.

“Yankee Stadium is a special place to be,’’ said Boone, who once hit a magical home run at the old Stadium. “You could feel it in the air. Our club is kind of built to play here in a lot of ways. So we want home-field advantage for a play-in game. But we can win anywhere.’’

We will soon see about that.