It was an enjoyable week of Yankees baseball as the Bronx Bullies beat the crap out of the Nationals for three days and then the White Sox for two days before winning an extra-inning game against the White Sox on Saturday and losing a one-run game to the White Sox on Sunday. Despite the frustrating loss in the series finale, the Yankees went 6-1 against two last-place teams and outscored them 53-19, which is what good teams — contending teams — are supposed to do.
The Yankees began August with five straight losses, six in the first seven games and seven in the first nine. After starting the month 2-7, they then won seven of eight and lost three straight before going 7-1. They finished the month 16-12 with 14 wins over the final 19 games of the month.
It’s great the Yankees stacked wins in the second half of the month and now only trail the Blue Jays by two games in the loss column and lead the Red Sox by one game in the loss column. But don’t forget what put them in this situation in which they had to run off 14 wins in 19 games to get to this point: playing the worst baseball in the majors for one-third of the season.
In August, the Yankees went 13-5 against teams currently boasting a losing record and 3-7 against teams currently posting a winning record. The problem is the Twins, Cardinals, Nationals and White Sox won’t be playing in the postseason. The bigger problem (for now) is the Yankees won’t see any of those teams or any team like them over the next 12 games.
The next 12 games will determine if the Yankees make a miraculous comeback to overtake the Blue Jays and win the AL East after once leading the Blue Jays by eight games, if they will end up in the top wild-card spot and host a best-of-3 series or if they will go on the road in that best-of-3. And standing in their way are the Astros, Blue Jays, Tigers and Red Sox — four teams the Yankees are 7-19 against this season.
Over the the next three days the Yankees will play in Houston where Framber Valdez, Jason Alexander and Christian Javier await. The Yankees got to Valdez in the Bronx last month, but he’s never someone you want to see them face, Alexander one-hit the Yankees over six shutout innings in that same series and Javier has owned them in a way no one else in the majors has over the last four years.
The thing is the Astros aren’t that good. They are actually a half-game worse than the Yankees if you can believe that. Since the teams met three weeks ago, the Astros have lost a home series to the Orioles, were swept by the Tigers and over their last eight games against the Orioles, Rockies and Angels, they went 4-4. The Astros can be beat, it’s just a matter of if the Yankees can beat them.
Tuesday is as big of a regular-season games as you can have, considering where the Yankees are in both the division and wild-card standings and because they have played so poorly against the league’s best this season. The Yankees’ bullying ways of destroying bad teams won’t be able to get them through this stretch. They will have to play their best to survive these 12 games. They will need the offense to get leadoff doubles in and to score runners from third with less than two outs. They will need the rotation to give them length and for the bullpen to be sound. They will need their manager to make countless correct decisions because he won’t be able to go on cruise control following a nine-run outburst in an early inning. They will need to play clean baseball in the field and be flawless on the basepaths. They will need to do things they struggle to do daily and things they fail at frequently and they will need to do them over and over from Tuesday through two Sundays from now if they want to create the most favorable postseason for themselves.
Last modified: Sep 2, 2025
