AL East is MLB's best division, and Yankees are dominating it

BOSTON — The club Red Sox manager Alex Cora called “the best team in baseball” after losing to it Thursday night has reached that status in what is universally acknowledged as the best division in the sport.

By far.

In a season that features far more bad teams than good ones in both leagues, the AL East stands above.

Though its teams have flaws — even the Yankees have one or two — the division features four teams over .500. Entering Friday night, the Yankees (an MLB-best 60-23) led the Rays by 14 ½ games and the Red Sox and Blue Jays by 15. Even the Orioles are competitive, taking a 40-44 record into Friday’s action after an embarrassing 52-110 season a year ago.

“It’s a beast,” Aaron Boone said. “Pack a lunch to play in this division. And I think what we’re seeing with Baltimore now, too. Baltimore is way better than they’ve been; they’re on the up and up, and yeah. It’s a [gantlet] to run through this division. You gotta play really well to beat these other teams and Boston, obviously, we’ve had battles with them forever. And they’re always a thorn and they’re always tough. Alex always has them ready to go.”

Cora, however, hasn’t had his team at its best in division play. Thursday night’s 6-5 loss to the Yankees dropped the Red Sox to 9-19 against AL East opponents, including 1-3 against the Yankees, after going 41-35 vs. the division in 2021.

After going 36-40 against the AL East last season, the Yankees are 27-12 in such games this year.

“We’re better in every way [than last year],” Boone said. “Last year was a hard year for us. I think in a lot of ways, us winning 92 games was a pretty good feat for all the things we went through. But we’re a way better team this year in every regard.”

Five batters into Friday night’s game, the Yankees led 4-0, thanks to an RBI single by Gleyber Torres and a three-run homer to left over the Green Monster by Josh Donaldson, who had a grand slam Thursday night. And it could have been worse, as Rafael Devers had robbed Aaron Judge of a double. Aaron Hicks followed Donaldson’s homer with a double off the rightfield wall, but the Red Sox got out of the inning without further damage.

Matt Carpenter’s two-out RBI double in the second gave the Yankees a 5-2 lead. Joey Gallo’s two-run triple in the third made it 7-2 — rightfielder Christian Arroyo, with arms outstretched and screaming “I can’t see it!’’ never found the high fly ball at all, and it landed well behind him  — but Gallo was thrown out at the plate as he tried to leg out an inside-the-park home run.

Carpenter’s home run in the fourth made it 8-2. Trevor Story and Bobby Dalbec homered in the bottom of the inning to bring the Red Sox within 9-4.

The Yankees’ success doesn’t mean they won’t try to get better before the Aug. 2 trade deadline. There are likely to be at least minor tweaks to the roster, with another outfield bat at the head of the wish list and perhaps a starter and/or reliever for added depth.

Those discussions, however, are at the beginning stages and have not yet begun in earnest.

“It’s the best division in baseball. I know we’re good and our players believe in each other and we believe in the team we’ve got,” general manager Brian Cashman said. “But I’m also not naïve to realize that there’s a lot of talented teams in both leagues that are more than capable of running the table when it counts. And so we just have to do everything in our power to take care of our business in the present as well as put ourselves in a position to be able to do that in the future at the same time. That’s what these conversations over the next month will be about. It may lead somewhere, it may lead nowhere, but we’ll see.”

Regardless of the big division lead, the 2022 Yankees, as evidenced by Thursday night’s victory over the Red Sox after arriving at their hotel here from Pittsburgh at about 4 a.m., aren’t likely to take their foot off the gas.

“It’s just a heavyweight division. What more can you say?’’ Boone said. “But I think our guys relish playing in these kinds of games against the best opponents, where a lot of eyeballs are on it, which you know are going to be here. This is a team [Boston] that got off to a slow start the first month of the season. They’re one of the best teams in baseball the last couple of months, so they’re starting to find their stride. They’re going to get more guys back probably as the season unfolds. So these guys, and probably a couple of others in our division, are going to be there in the end.”

The way things look at the moment, however, they’ll be a ways behind the Yankees.