Yankees News: Aaron Judge history, Aaron Boone's UNC appearance, AL playoff race

The New York Yankees won seven straight games to claw their way back into the forefront of the AL Wild Card and AL East race over the past week, and we'll get to that in a moment. They swept the Washington Nationals and took three out of four from the Chicago White Sox.

In that series finale against Chicago, the Yankees lost, but Aaron Judge smacked his 358th career homer to tie Yogi Berra on the Yankees' all-time list. Berra and Judge are now tied for the fifth-most in franchise history.

The last time the top-five leaderboard for home runs had any sort of shakeup? 1957. That was when Berra and Mickey Mantle were playing together, and Berra finished the year recording his 262nd homer. At that point, Mantle only had 207 homers. And it was Roger Maris' rookie season (in Cleveland). Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Charlie Keller and Tommy Henrich rounded out the top five until Berra and Mantle jumped the line.

In short, we are witnessing one of the greatest Yankees of all time. Judge is almost assuredly going to be in the 500 home run club when all is said and done, and there's a very good chance he surpasses Mantle. He's 301 homers away from Ruth's top mark, which could be an uphill battle depending upon how his play holds up in his mid-to-late 30s.

And with Cal Raleigh slipping fast in the MVP race, Judge might take home his third trophy at the conclusion of 2025, even if he can no longer play defense.

Now for that World Series championship and legacy-securing playoff run ...

Yankees News: Aaron Boone's UNC appearance, AL playoff race getting tight

The Yankees were off on Monday night before they play 18 games in 19 days, with 12 against the Astros, Blue Jays, Tigers and Red Sox. Manager Aaron Boone enjoyed the breather by attending the UNC vs TCU football game in Chapel Hill. Many on social media were asking "but why?" Former Yankee Clint Frazier went as far as to criticize the skipper.

We later found out Boone's son is on Bill Belichick's staff at UNC. He works as a student assistant and the game falling on a Yankees off day (plus Belichick's NCAA debut) was obviously perfect for Boone to attend.

UNC lost 48-14 after opening the game with a touchdown drive. Don't make an Aaron Boone joke. Don't make an Aaron Boone joke ...

Boone had to jump on a plane to Texas shortly after, where the Yankees are waiting to take on the Astros in Houston. That begins their most important stretch of the year with various playoff implications on the line.

The Yankees currently tied for the lead in the AL Wild Card race with the rival Red Sox and are just 2.5 games back of the Blue Jays for first place in the division. While there's no chance for New York to salvage tiebreakers over Boston or Toronto, they at least have the chance to do so against Houston and Deteoit. The Bombers lost their series to the Astros in the Bronx and vs the Tigers in Detroit, but can redeem themselves in these three-game sets. The Tigers might feel like they're out of reach as they own the best record in the AL, but they are only five games better than the Yanks, so this can swing relatively quickly.

Their next 12 games count as double with the race being so tight and all of the team records being nearly identical. At this rate, the Yankees badly need to win the AL East or else they'll be stuck playing one of the Astros or Red Sox, and if they remain tied with the Red Sox in the standings, they'll be forced to go to Boston for the Wild Card series.

New York is 37-37 against teams above .500 this season. Not great, but not terrible. The good news? They close out the year with 13 games against the Twins, Orioles and White Sox. It's all right in front of them.