Yankees have turned around their season, helped by recent soft schedule
The Yankees' Aaron Judge hits a home run during the fourth inning against the White Sox on Saturday in Chicago. Credit: AP/David Banks
CHICAGO — Talk about a quick change.
After falling to the Twins on Aug. 13, the skidding Yankees were in third place in the AL East, six games behind the first-place Blue Jays and one game ahead of the hard-charging Guardians for the American League’s third and final wild-card spot.
Off on Thursday, Aug. 14, the Yankees saw the Guardians pull within a half-game and the Blue Jays move 6 ½ games ahead of them.
The Aug. 13 loss dropped the Yankees, who were doing virtually nothing right, to seven games over .500 at 64-57 after reaching their high-water mark of 17 games over .500 (42-25) on June 12.
Though the Yankees falling completely out of a playoff spot still seemed far-fetched, it was, to borrow former Mets general manager Sandy Alderson’s line from a decade ago, “Panic City” among a fan base expecting the bottom to continue dropping out on the season.
As recently as Aug. 23, even as they started playing a bit better, the Yankees still trailed the Blue Jays by 6 ½ games. But lately, things could not have taken a much more dramatic turn.
Taking advantage of a soft schedule, the Yankees entered Saturday night’s game against the White Sox riding a season-high six-game winning streak and having won 13 of their last 17 games. Entering Saturday, that put them a half-game ahead of the Red Sox for the top wild-card spot and three games behind the suddenly-not-as-fearsome-looking Blue Jays. And when Toronto lost to Milwaukee and Boston lost to Pittsburgh on Saturday afternoon, the Yankees were in position to move within two games of the Blue Jays and 1 1/2 games ahead of the Red Sox.
“I don’t really look at it,” Trent Grisham said of the standings after hitting his 28th homer of the season in Friday night’s 10-2 victory at Rate Field. “It’s August. The playoffs start in October. Still got a long way to go.”
After this four-game series ends, the Yankees will have the opportunity to change the they-can-only-beat-the-bad-teams narrative as the schedule bulks up considerably. The Yankees are off on Monday before starting a three-game series at Houston's Minute Maid Park. That will be followed by three games at home against the Blue Jays (against whom they are 3-7), three at home against the Tigers and three on the road against the Red Sox (against whom they’re 2-8).
The Yankees' record against the AL clubs that currently would be in the playoffs (12-20 against the Blue Jays, Tigers, Astros, Red Sox and Mariners) has been well documented. They have fattened up of late on a steady dose of the Twins, Cardinals, Rays, Nationals and White Sox, and they finish the season in a similar way, facing the Twins, Orioles, White Sox and Orioles again.
“I think we understand what’s at stake and I think everyone knows how important each day is,” Aaron Boone said after Friday’s victory. “Look, I never take anyone lightly on the schedule. Ever. And that’s not lip service. It’s the big leagues, man. If you don’t play well, you’re going to get beat.”
Lately, it has been the Yankees administering the beatings, especially when it comes to the long ball.
The Yankees entered Saturday having hit an MLB-leading 230 homers, 29 more than the next-highest team, the Dodgers, and 38 more than the next-highest AL team, the Mariners. They had hit 35 homers in their last 11 games, tying them with Atlanta in 2023 and the White Sox in 2020 for the most home runs by any team in an 11-game span in MLB history, and 47 in their last 17 games.
“Obviously, it’s a really talented team, a really talented lineup,” said Cody Bellinger, whose 26 homers going into Saturday tied him for third-most on the club with Jazz Chisholm Jr. “It’s clicking right now and it’s obviously really fun. Just fun to be a part of and we’re looking to keep it rolling.”
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.
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