AL playoff standings have Yankees putting pressure on Rays (but Red Sox won't go away)

The New York Yankees had their five-game winning streak snapped, falling 4-3 at the hands of the Toronto Blue Jays during the second game of the three-game set. The loss and subsequent injury to Ryan Weathers certainly put a damper on things, but in the big picture, things are still looking bright for the team.

They won Sunday's series finale to secure a 7-6 season record vs Toronto, kicking them down to 1.5 games back of a playoff spot.

Overall, the Yankees' solid run of late has coincided with the Tampa Bay Rays playing some of their worst baseball of the year. The Rays, after Sunday's action, had lost three of four and dropped six of their last 10 games. At the same time, the Boston Red Sox have cooled substantially, after their face-melting run that had some of us ready to lose our minds.

Still, they won't go away. They are 2.5 games back of New York and six games back of Tampa with about a month to go.

New York now sits at 74-56, just 3.5 games back of the Rays, who lead the division at 78-53 after a Monday victory over the Tigers. It's a considerable turnaround since the club was sitting a season-worst 6.5 games back of Tampa just over a week ago on Aug. 15. At the same time, the Yankees have managed to keep the Red Sox at arm's length, with a 2.5-game cushion over Boston's 72-59 record (they won on Monday, too).

This is a big deal because it was starting to look like the division wasn't in play anymore, and that the Red Sox could even jump above New York in the Wild Card standings. Things certainly haven't been perfect, as the offense still lacks more often than not, but the Yankees are riding the wave of some of the best pitching in franchise history.

The Yankees are well set to make a run at the AL East crown

In just about two weeks, the Yankees have raised their odds of winning the division from 15.1% to 28.3%, per FanGraphs. That's huge, as the winner of the AL East likely gets a first-round bye plus home-field advantage throughout the AL bracket.

While it still seems like the Yankees are more likely than not to finish with a wild card berth, there's a case to be made that things are only going to go in their favor from here on out.

It's safe to say that, barring a catastrophic injury, New York has already played the worst baseball of its season. George Lombard Jr. has provided a spark since getting called up, and even if his bat cools, his glove is so good that he'll still make a positive impact (he's had a rough time defensively over the last week, but we suspect that's only a hiccup).

On top of that, the Yankees are getting healthy, sort of. We might have gotten some bad Giancarlo Stanton news, but Cody Bellinger is back, and Aaron Judge is making positive strides towards a return of his own. That should fix the offensive woes the team has experienced and take the pressure off Ben Rice to carry the load on his own.

If it feels like every Yankees season follows the same script, it's because that is sort of true. Every year we have to suffer through a summer slump, only to emerge stronger during the season's final stretch. If the Yankees can make this a fast and furious run to the finish, we could see the club snatch the division title from the Rays' hands and set up a favorable path for a deep playoff run. The odds still don't say that it's likely, but the pendulum is swinging back in New York's favor with each passing day.

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