2.5 games back. What a difference a week makes.
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| Photo: New York Daily News |
Seven days ago when the Yankees were five games down in the division race and it felt like forever since they'd even sniffed back-to-back hits with runners in scoring position much less a winning series, I strongly urged my more dispirited brethren not to overlook the strategic vantage point of being prematurely left for dead by a division leader and some up-and-coming wild card chasers on hot streaks.
"The likelihood they could do better than they are now is still pretty good, and that prospect coupled with the possibility some other teams cool off a bit might just get them the October surprise nobody expected before the season started," I wrote. "...If they can bag themselves series wins against the Tigers, Mariners and Indians before they face Boston a final time and take them as well, this team could roll into September fortified by fresh call ups and returning starters in a full-speed blitzkrieg on a division title."
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| (AP Photo/Adam Hunger) |
Needless to say I took some razzing at the time for my optimistic Yankee-blue colored glasses view -- as have, I imagine, some of my like-minded BYB colleagues. But my optimism was actually rooted in long experience with both the unpredictable ebb and flow of AL East races and the Yankees' own peculiar habit of pulling a Seabiscuit whenever it heads into the home stretch glimpsing the ass of a lead horse galloping away in front of them. Something just clicks and they always seem to find another gear.
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| Photo: NJ.com |
And this past week, find another one they did as the offense finally woke up with a boom thanks to a couple of wounded warriors returning to the lineup and some deep rotation turns. The result: A pair of long overdue back-to-back series wins against the aforementioned Tigers and Mariners, a 4-2 record on the week and the end to a nauseating 0-for-11 streak in rubber games.
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| (AP Photo/Adam Hunger) |
As NY's winning pace picked up speed, Boston's (not unexpectedly to this writer) skidded to a 2-5 mark, including a sweep at the hands of the .500 Orioles. (See my piece last Wednesday entitled YANKEES GOT BOSTON RIGHT WHERE WE WANT THEM for more on "this jungle of division cannibals where everyone who isn't in the race always tries extra hard to take down those who are.")
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| Photo: New York Daily News |
All in all, a pretty positive start in the right direction. A series win against the Indians is next on my must-do list.
That's where things start to get really interesting.
If our boys manage to take two or more games from Cleveland, regardless how Boston does against Toronto, it's going to be damn hard to maintain this underdog advantage heading into the Labor Day weekend series against them-- and damn near impossible after that against anyone else if they take down Boston as well.
The good news, though, is they may not need it anymore after that. To date, no team in the American League has a better home winning percentage than the Yankees and no team in the majors has played fewer home games either. That means that with 21 of their remaining 33 games at home, no team in the majors is set up more favorably schedule-wise for a stretch run.
If they can just sneak by some Indians this week and bloody some Sox this weekend, the team nobody gave a chance and then everyone left for dead are poised to end this crazy 2017 marathon with a September sprint to the finish line nobody saw coming.
Except, of course, anyone wearing Yankee-blue colored glasses.
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