Yankees chance at Division title is more real than you think

Suddenly, the Yankees are right back in this thing. And although the name of the game is just to get in the October Tournament, Boston is ripe for the taking and here’s why.

The Yankees could, and they should just keep playing like they have been for the past few days, taking care of business with no concern as to what any other team might be doing, or not doing.

Like the Yankees in the Wild Card race, the Boston Red Sox are the boss in the AL East. They have to lose if anyone else is going to win the title from them. In a quirk of the schedule, the Yankees and the Red Sox do not meet again this season. And by the way, someone has to look into that so-called “quirk” cause it just ain’t right.

Be that as it may, though, the schedule of upcoming games for both teams zooms to the top as a potential factor in what the Final AL East Standings look like on October 1st.

The Yankees have embarked on a long road trip that includes Texas and Tampa Bay following the series they are playing at Camden Yards against the Orioles. The team returns home on September 14 to face the same Orioles, who are then followed by the Minnesota Twins.

During the same interim, Boston is enjoying a home stand playing Toronto, Tampa Bay, and the Oakland A’s. And then they hit the road traveling to Tampa, Baltimore, and Cincinnati before they return home to finish out the season with Toronto and, get this, the Houston Astros.

In terms of match-ups, it doesn’t appear like either team has been given a mulligan by the schedule gods at MLB.

Dig a little deeper, though……

But a closer look reveals a thing or two that just might work in the Yankees favor. For one, the Yankees will have their long road trip over and done with before the Red Sox begin theirs. And two, those three games smack at the end of the season against the Astros loom ahead for the Red Sox as a potential decider for a number of things.

And if the Astro’s continue to trip and stumble, those games could, for instance, be a deciding factor for home field advantage in the playoffs. And if that happens, the Red Sox will be forced to alter their rotation to meet the challenge, meaning their best pitchers might not be available until the second or third games of the ALDS.

That much, of course, is all speculation. But the hard fact is that when the Red Sox have been in a “must win” game with their ace on the mound, as they were Sunday night when Chris Sale took a tumble and the Yankees decidedly beat him, the Red Sox have failed to meet the challenge.

Somehow, they have reclaimed Doug Fister from the garbage dump and Drew Pomeranz is pitching like he’s in a fog and winning, but how long can that go on. Chris Sale has been knocked out of a game decisively, not only by the Yankees but also recently by the Indians, two teams he is being paid to beat.

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David Price continues to throw what the Red Sox call “great bullpen sessions”, but he hasn’t made a contribution to the team in two months. Hanley Ramirez leads the team in home runs (only 22), but he has not converted them into run production with only 52 RBI.

Dustin Pedroia, who has appeared in only 88 injury-riddled games, is their only .300 hitter and this could go on and on. The point is, though, the Red Sox are not the Cleveland Indians.

They are a flawed team and they can be beaten.

Something about this team just “feels right”

The Yankees, however, don’t need to worry about beating them if the Red Sox beat themselves while the Yankees continue to put the blinders on playing one game at a time, and winning at least sixty percent of those games.

As we said in the beginning, making it to the October Show is all that matters at this point in the season, and the Yankees are well on their way to doing that.

And while there shouldn’t be any need for nervous and nail-biting scoreboard watching, it would surprise me to see the Yankees overtake the Red Sox by the end of September.

Next: Jacoby Ellsbury could actually become tradeable

It just “feels right” and it’s something you couldn’t say about the Yankees ten days ago. It doesn’t need to happen, but it sure would put an exclamation point on their 2017 season if it did.

As always, I invite you to share your thoughts and comments about this story or anything Yankees on the Yanks Go Yard Facebook page.

Suddenly, the Yankees are right back in this thing. And although the name of the game is just to get in the October Tournament, Boston is ripe for the taking and here’s why.

Dig a little deeper, though……

More from Yanks Go Yard

Something about this team just “feels right”

Schedule