Yankees' Aaron Boone is absolutely right this time about club's chances

At this point, it truly is right there in front of them.

That’s the line Yankees manager Aaron Boone most often reaches for in his quote quiver and the one most likely to inspire Yankees fans to reach for sharp objects.

“It’s right there in front of us.”

Boone has said it in good times and bad during his tenure. Typically, though, it’s spoken when the latter is the case.

It received, for instance, a healthy workout from June 13-Aug. 10 this season when the Yankees endured a 20-31 stretch in which they fell from 42-25 to 62-56 and went from cruising in first place in the AL East to trying to hold on to the league’s third and final wild-card spot.

But taking advantage of an uber-soft schedule, the Yankees have gone 18-7 since Aug. 11 to match their season high at 17 games over .500 at 80-63.

Most encouraging for them has been the last six games.

Monday’s off-day marked the halfway point of a 12-game run against teams that currently would make the American League playoffs — the three division leaders and the second wild card. The Yankees have gone 4-2; after taking two of three against the AL West-leading Astros in Houston, they took two of three against the AL East-leading Blue Jays at the Stadium. That brought the Yankees within two games of Toronto (82-61) with 19 games to go. (The margin really is three games, as the Blue Jays own any potential division title tiebreaker after winning the season series 8-5.)

Regardless, because of their performances against the Astros (who have bullied them, especially in the postseason, like none other for the last decade) and the Blue Jays (who won six of seven meetings between the clubs in a three-week stretch starting in late June), the feelings surrounding the Yankees’ possibilities in October have dramatically changed.

Not only is the division suddenly in play in a way that seemed a long shot even two weeks ago — the Blue Jays led the third-place Yankees by 6 1⁄2 games on Aug. 23 — the AL’s No. 1 seed is, too.

The last six games of this 12-game stretch against playoff-level teams brings the AL Central-leading Tigers (82-62) to the Stadium, starting on Tuesday, before three games at Fenway Park.

The Yankees have gone 3-10 against those two teams this season, but the Tigers are 23-28 since July 9. The streaky Red Sox — who are one game behind the Yankees for the top wild card (they are tied in the win column but Boston has two more losses) — are 5-5 in their last 10 games.

All of which gave Boone a prime opportunity late Sunday afternoon after the Yankees’ 4-3 victory over Toronto to till his familiar right-there-in-front-of-us soil.

This time, however, he veered.

“The one thing I’ve maintained throughout is I feel like we have a chance to be a really, really excellent club,” Boone said. “The one thing I know is we’re pretty healthy, and I feel like we have a lot of guys that are in a good place and we are in a position to go get it. Now we gotta go do it.”

Boone said it without the told-you-so self-satisfaction that has crept into his tone over the years when one of his clubs comes out of a prolonged stretch of poor play. No tone of self-satisfaction could be detected in the clubhouse, either (players almost always steer clear of that kind of thing anyway).

“It’s huge,” Ben Rice, who hit a key three-run homer off future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer in the first inning Sunday, said of taking the Blue Jays series. “With that being said, we’ve got more work to do.”

Said Ryan McMahon, given new professional life at the trade deadline after spending the first part of the season with the Rockies, who were out of contention more or less by April Fools’ Day: “I don’t know if we’re trying to make a statement; we’re just trying to play really good baseball. The boys are locked in, they’re coming in every day with good energy and we’re taking it out on the field.”

Added Austin Wells, who on Sunday made what Boone said was “probably the biggest defensive play of the game” when he threw out Nathan Lukes attempting to steal second for the second out of the ninth inning: “Just keep going, keep winning. Take the off day and then go face a good Tigers team. Take those one at a time. I think at the end of the year, if we do that, we’ll be where we want to be.”

And, in what all season has thought to be — and proved to be — an American League with good but flawed teams, that destination is squarely in front of the Yankees.

More than there for the taking.

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.