1. I was disgusted when I left the Stadium on Friday night following a putrid 7-1 loss. Cam Schlittler couldn’t put anyone away as he needed 66 pitches to get five outs and the offense provided one hit (a Giancarlo Stanton solo home run) through the first six innings.

Prior to the series-opening game, I wrote: That’s not to say Schlittler may not overthrow on Friday night. It’s going to be a loud crowd at the Stadium for the series opener with nice weather expected, the Blue Jays in town and the division on the line. If Schlittler stays composed and throws strikes, he will be just fine and the Yankees will be just fine.

Schlittler wasn’t fine. He laid his first egg and turned in his worst outing in 10 career starts, allowing more than three earned runs for the first time as well. He put eight runners on in 1 2/3 innings and the Blue Jays fouled off pitch after pitch after pitch, tiring Schlittler out until they got something to barrel. It was startling to see him struggle given how good he’s been. Maybe it was the Blue Jays seeing him for a second time this season or maybe it was what I feared in him pitching in the most important game of his career to date. Whatever it was, it was a disaster and the Yankees fell to four back in the loss column in the division.

2. Things went much better on Saturday as the Yankees won 3-1 with a nearly-two-hour rain delay mixed in.

Luis Gil continued his 2025 escape act as he walked four in six innings but managed to hold the Blue Jays to just one run thanks to Cody Bellinger throwing out Bo Bichette at home to end the sixth right before the tarp came out.

The Yankees took an early lead in that one thanks to a second-inning walk, error, single and sacrifice fly sequence and added a third run after the rain delay on another sacrifice fly. Both sac flies came off the bat of Austin Wells, who leads the majors with 11.

Luke Weaver, Fernando Cruz and David Bednar combined to throw three scoreless innings and pull the Yankees once again within three of the Blue Jays in the loss column.

3. On Sunday, the game started out beautifully with Max Fried retiring George Springer, David Schneider and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on eight pitches followed by a Ben Rice three-run home run off of Max Scherzer in the bottom of the first (which was apparently the product of Scherzer tipping his pitches). Maybe the Yankees would win a laugher against a good opponent, blow out the Blue Jays and let Paul Blackburn eat up innings at the end of the game so the bullpen could get an extra day of rest with Monday’s scheduled day off? Maybe not.

The Blue Jays immediately fought back. Alejandro Kirk walked to lead off the second and Ernie Clement doubled. With runners on second and third and one out, Fried got old friend Isiah Kiner-Falefa to hit a ground ball to short. It was hit far enough in the hole that it would score one run, but Anthony Volpe couldn’t even knock it down or get his glove on it to prevent a second run from scoring.

Leading 3-2 in the third, Fried gave up a leadoff double to Springer and then Schneider reached on a throwing error from Volpe as the “fucking elite” shortstop continues to dazzle in the field. Guerrero doubled in Springer to tie the game at 3. Cody Bellinger drove in the go-ahead run in the bottom of the third to give the Yankees a 4-3 and the score stayed that way for the rest of the game to get the Yankees within two games in the loss column in the division.

4. Aaron Judge was back in right field on Sunday and back to lobbing in throws to the outfield. It’s obvious Judge is doing barely a step above Smalls running back the ball to the infield in The Sandlot as Aaron Boone gets testy with the media and tries to tell everyone what they are seeing isn’t what they are seeing. It’s the same approach he has used in handling discussing his shortstop the last three years.

I have spent a lot of words in these Thoughts on Volpe, especially this year, and I’m running out of ways to portray just how bad he is for those who can’t comprehend how bad he is. He does nothing well. I think that’s the best way to summarize him as a player: He does nothing well. He can’t hit for average and he doesn’t hit for power (at least not regularly). He’s been caught stealing in 48 percent of his 23 attempts and is a poor situational hitter. He has a weak arm and atrocious fielding technique. He lets every ball play him, fails to charge routine grounders, plays balls on his back hand when he doesn’t need to and seemingly wants to put himself in position to be off-balance when he throws to first base.

Volpe went 1-for-37 with 14 strikeouts leading into the White Sox series then went 6-for-14 against the worst team in the American League and is 2-for-21 with 12 strikeouts since. Remove his weekend against the league’s worst and he’s 3-for-58 with 26 strikeouts dating back to August 15. He went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts, an error and couldn’t knock down the Kiner-Falefa ball on Sunday.

Volpe’s slash line for the season is an improbable .207/.269/.396 in 556 plate appearances. Improbable because no one with those kind of numbers gets to have 556 plate appearances on a team that claims it’s goal is to win the World Series. It would be one thing if he had the type of defense at shortstop that Ryan McMahon does at third base because then you could at least try to argue his importance in the everyday lineup, but instead, I look away when any ball is hit to short and pray it results in an out.

Volpe is a problem. A big problem. An enormous problem. Because the Yankees continue to tell us he’s something he’s not, even after 460 regular-season games and 1,846 plate appearances. There isn’t a single stat — traditional or modern — that suggests he’s even remotely close to being a valuable part of the team even if Boone says there’s no planet in which Volpe isn’t an elite player already and believes he’s a superstar in the making.

5. Watching Jose Caballero play shortstop in person on Friday night was refreshing. Routine plays are made like they’re routine plays and throws from short reach first in the air and on target. I don’t care if Caballero has no power and limited ability at the plate. He puts together tough at-bats and when he does reach he’s a menace on the bases. He can impact the game so much more than Volpe can on both sides of the ball.

Here are the offensive stats for both since Caballero became a Yankee:

There isn’t a person in the world not named Aaron Boone or Brian Cashman who could look at those numbers and think Volpe should be playing every day and that’s without factoring in the disparity in their defense.

Unfortunately, Volpe is going to keep playing every day and the Yankees will continue to tell us everything we have been watching from him over the last three full seasons is an illusion and that he’s “fucking elite” and we’re all “losing our minds” when it comes to evaluating him.

6. A similar story has unfolded with Devin Williams with Boone acting as though everything we have seen from Williams isn’t real. It was outrageous Williams pitched against the top of the Blue Jays lineup in the eighth inning of a one-run game on Sunday. I don’t give a fuck how many pitches Weaver or Cruz or Bednar had thrown of late. It was the biggest moment in the biggest game of the season to date and a situation Williams has proven he can’t handle since the very first game of the season. And yet, Boone still used him. It doesn’t matter that Williams got out of the inning without allowing either of his two baserunners to score. It was ridiculous he was allowed to impact that game given the stakes, with the stakes being the division race being over if the Yankees had lost. (Also, has the opposition not watched enough video of Williams to understand if you never swing against him, you will never make an out? He has no fastball command and his changeup is never in the zone. If hitters weren’t so selfish and greedy in thinking they can get an extra-base hit off of Williams, he would walk every batter he faces.)

7. The Yankees are doing their best to shed the Bronx Bullies moniker. After beating the crap out of last-place teams in August, the Yankees have opened September with back-to-back series wins over the Astros and Blue Jays. The idea the Yankees can’t beat the top teams in the league is slowly starting to fade after back-to-back series wins over the Astros and Blue Jays, though there is still a long way to go with six games this week against the Tigers and Red Sox.

8. Winning the division is still unlikely. The Yankees are two games back in the loss column, but they are really three games back overall because of the head-to-head tiebreaker after losing eight of 13 to the Blue Jays this season.

Here is what needs to happen for the Yankees to win the division:

I stopped at 8-11 because it’s hard to expect the Blue Jays to play worse than that when it’s hard to expect them playing under .500 at all. The Blue Jays’ remaining schedule is much more difficult than the Yankees, but I think the worst any Yankees fan can wish for from the Blue Jays is 10-9, which means the Yankees will have to go 13-6, which is very doable if the Blue Jays cooperate.

9. Here is what I wrote about the Yankees winning the division on August 30:

Let’s make it as hard as possible for the Yankees to win the division. Let’s say they are three games back of the Blue Jays after Sunday, Aug. 31.

The Yankees were three games back after Sunday, Aug. 31.

The Yankees will have to go at least .500 in the 12 games against the Astros, Blue Jays, Tigers and Red Sox to have a chance. So let’s say they go 6-6, which is the floor of what they can do. Two of those six wins have to come against the Blue Jays …

The Yankees are 4-2 in the 12 games against the Astros, Blue Jays, Tigers and Red Sox. They won two against the Blue Jays.

Let’s say the Yankees drop one of their two games this weekend (against the White Sox) and so do the Blue Jays (against the Brewers). The Yankees would be 76-61 at the end of play on Sunday and the Blue Jays 79-58.

This is what happened and the Yankees were 76-61 and the Blue Jays were 79-58 at the end of play on Sunday, Aug. 31.

The Yankees then go 6-6 against the Astros, Blue Jays, Tigers and Red Sox and are now 82-67. The Blue Jays have lost two of three to the Yankees during that time, so they are 80-60. In their other nine games, the Blue Jays have gone 4-5 against the Reds, Astros and Orioles and are now 84-65.

Again, the Yankees won two of three from the Blue Jays and are 4-2 in the 12 games, needing to go just 2-4 to meet 6-6. The Blue Jays went 2-1 against the Reds, so in order to get to 4-5, they will need to go 2-4 against the Astros and Orioles. Not likely, so the Yankees will need to do better than 2-4 against the Tigers and Red Sox. Go 3-3 and the Blue Jays can then also go 3-3. Again, very doable.

The Yankees need to get through this week still two games back in the loss column to have a chance. If they are two games back in the loss column or better at the end of play on Sunday then I do think they will win the division given the opponents in their 13 remaining games and the Blue Jays’ opponents in their 13 remaining games.

10. The Yankees did their job over the weekend by winning the series against the Blue Jays, and they are right on track with what I laid out 10 days ago in terms of what they need to do and what the Blue Jays need to do for the Yankees to win the division. The difference between winning the division and not is getting a bye straight to the ALDS or having to play a best-of-3 with Garrett Crochet and Brayan Bello (whom the Yankees are 0-5 against this year) pitching Games 1 and 2. The day off on Monday is much needed given the use of the only three trustworthy relievers of late. It’s also needed to give me (and likely all Yankees fans) a rest from the emotional, mental and physical stress and anguish the 2025 Yankees have caused over the last five-plus months.

1. I didn’t feel good at the end of the seventh inning on Thursday night. The Yankees had built a 4-1 lead against the Astros through five-and-a-half innings but gave a run back in the sixth thanks to some of the worst collective umpiring you’ll ever see and then gave up another run in the seventh. The 4-1 lead had become a 4-3 lead and I felt like I was watching the previous night’s game unfold again. On Wednesday, the Yankees watched a 4-1 lead turn into an 8-4 deficit when the combination of their manager and bullpen couldn’t keep the Astros off the board in the fifth, sixth, seven or eighth innings and a nearly identical occurrence was brewing on Thursday.

The Yankees weren’t able to add on to their lead or protect it on Wednesday. On Thursday, they were able to do both.

Ryan McMahon delivered an RBI single that increased the lead from 4-3 to 5-3 in the eighth and Trent Grisham delivered the game-opening blow with a three-run home run to extend the lead to 8-3.

A five-run lead with six outs to go and Fernando Cruz and David Bednar available should be more than enough to coast to the postgame handshake line. But it nearly wasn’t as Bednar went out of his way to give the Astros a chance to shock the Yankees and hand them their latest worst loss of the season. Bednar had pitched just once in a nine-day period (throwing 22 pitches against the White Sox back on August 30) and looked like more like Camilo Doval than himself. He allowed a single, double, lineout, single and walk before finally striking out Carlos Correa (Correa helped him out by swinging at ball 4 on a 3-2 pitch) and Christian Walker to end the game. Had Correa walked, Walker would have come to the plate as the tying run, a scenario which seemed unimaginable with a five-run lead and three outs from a win with a more-than-rested Bednar on the mound.

The Yankees did their job in Houston, winning two of three and keep their place in the standings the same on Thursday with the Blue Jays and Red Sox both idle. They are now 2-1 in this 12-game stretch in which they need to go at least 6-6.

2. Carlos Rodon was very good (6 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 1 HR) in the biggest game of the season to date. There were times when it seemed like the game would get away from him (and in the past it definitely would have), but Rodon successfully navigated his way through each jam. If only that version of Rodon would come to pitch in every big game.

3. Cruz’s strikeout of Jose Altuve with two outs and two on in the seventh on a 3-2 pitch was one of the biggest moments of the season. Altuve went into that at-bat hitless in the series and if there was ever a time for him to be due and get yet another last laugh at the Yankees it was there. I kept envisioning him hitting a three-run home run over the left-field wall all the way until he waved through Cruz’s high-and-away splitter. Cruz, Luke Weaver and Bednar are the only relievers I trust in the Yankees’ bullpen and my trust in Weaver is fading.

4. With every Grisham home run — and there have now been 30 of them this season — I can’t help but think about what could have been if he had played over Alex Verdugo last season, especially in the playoffs and World Series. Every Grisham home run seems to come in an enormous moment. He’s either homering to lead off a game, tie a game or give the Yankees a late or extended lead. It’s unlikely the Yankees sign Grisham with Cody Bellinger also a free agent and Jasson Dominguez and Spencer Jones waiting to inexpensively fill everyday roster spots, but if the Yankees decided to sign Grisham, he has earned it. Whether it’s with the Yankees or not, the Grishams and many generations of them will be taken care of because of this season.

5. What a game for McMahon. He gave the Yankees an early 1-0 lead with an RBI single, homered to give them the lead back at 2-1 and drove in an important run in the eighth to extend the lead from 4-3 to 5-3. He was also the focal point in the bizarre situation that unfolded at third base when he clearly caught a batted ball in the air and then dropped the transfer to throw but was deemed to not have caught the ball all by the entire umpire crew. I don’t think we’ll be seeing anyone from that crew in October.

6. Aaron Judge did what he does against the Astros in the three games, which isn’t much. Three singles, three walks and no extra-base hits for Judge in the series. In the six games against the Astros this season he went 5-for-21 with four walks and all five hits were singles. That’s exactly who Judge has always been against the Astros. Judge also went 2-for-14 with two walks and six strikeouts against the Red Sox in August and 1-for-10 (though the one was a home run) with one walk and four strikeouts against the Blue Jays at the end of July. There’s a reason the Yankees have such an abysmal combined record against the Blue Jays, Red Sox, Tigers and Astros this season and it’s because Judge hasn’t been at his best against those teams. Those are the teams the Yankees will play in the postseason, so if this is Judge foreshadowing what’s to come next month then I’m ready for it since I’m used to it from him.

7. If you remove Anthony Volpe’s 6-for-14 against the White Sox — the worst team in the American League — last weekend, the run he’s on is preposterous. He was 1-for-38 before the 6-for-14 and is 1-for-11 since. If there were consequences for underachieving within the Yankees organization and if either Brian Cashman or Aaron Boone had to fear for their jobs then Volpe wouldn’t be playing every day with a .208/.271/.397 slash line, an 83+ OPS and shaky defense. Unfortunately, the White Sox series is enough to carry him through the rest of the season and into next season as an everyday regular for the Yankees. The Yankees have had three years to do something to improve his play and development and they have scoffed (laughed, really) at every chance and every criticism. Jose Caballero’s sound play and peskiness isn’t enough to get playing time except for occasionally against lefties and as an injury or defensive replacement. George Lombard Jr. remains Yankees fans’ only hope to unseating Volpe as the Yankees’ starting shortstop.

8. It will be interesting to see what lineup Boone comes up with against Kevin Gausman on Friday. I would have to think Jazz Chisholm (0-for-10 against Gausman) will be held out after leaving Thursday’s game early (but not before he unnecessarily wasted an at-bat and an important out). McMahon is 5-for-14 with a home run and 1.186 OPS against Gausman, Jose Caballero is 5-for-7 with a 1.714 OPS and Amed Rosario is 4-for-14 with two home runs and a 1.047 OPS. Those three have to play. Giancarlo Stanton is 8-for-27 with three home runs and a 1.034 OPS against Gausman and Paul Goldschmidt is 10-for-19 with a home run and 1.362. Cody Bellinger is only 2-for-19 and Trent Grisham is 5-for-21 against him, but you can’t not play those two. None of Volpe, Dominguez, Austin Wells or Ben Rice have even respectable numbers against him. Here is what I would do:

1. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
2. Aaron Judge, DH
3. Cody Bellinger, LF
4. Giancarlo Stanton, RF
5. Ryan McMahon, 3B
6. Amed Rosario, 2B/SS
7. Trent Grisham, CF
8. Jose Caballero, 2B/SS
9. Austin Wells, C

Play Caballero or Rosario at short and the other at second. Keep Rice on the bench to hit for someone later. That lineup keeps the overall balance for once Gausman is out of the game, while making sure those with impressive career numbers against him get to face him at least two times. Will Boone do any of that? No. Don’t be surprised to see Volpe in there and one of Caballero or Rosario on the bench.

9. It’s possible the lineup and offense won’t need to do much with Cam Schlittler on the mound. In nine starts, Schlittler has allowed three runs or fewer every time. He hasn’t allowed multiple runs in a start since August 8 and has allowed just one run total over this last three starts. The Blue Jays have seen him once in his second start back on July 22 and he pitched well in that game (5 IP, 2 ER) despite it being his second start and going 13 days between starts. Schlittler is much more comfortable now having been in the majors for two months and has looked better each time out, which seems odds to say for someone with 54 strikeouts in 48 1/3 innings and a 2.61 ERA.

That’s not to say Schlittler may not overthrow on Friday night. It’s going to be a loud crowd at the Stadium for the series opener with nice weather expected, the Blue Jays in town and the division on the line. If Schlittler stays composed and throws strikes, he will be just fine and the Yankees will be just fine.

9. I don’t expect any easy, blowout, or lopsided wins this weekend because how can you ever expect those, especially in what will be postseason-like games in September. Close games means Boone is heavily involved. Schlittler has only given the Yankees more than six innings in one start, so six innings is about all you can ask from him. That means the Yankees need to plan to get at least nine outs from the bullpen (and possibly more). At this point in the season the bullpen budget and the “can’t pitch three days in a row” bullshit needs to be thrown out the window. If Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is up in a big spot on Friday, it can’t be Camilo Doval or Devin Williams facing him just because others pitched on Wednesday and Thursday. If the Yankees manage like that this weekend then the division is already over before any of the game are played. These are the most important games of the season, and with the two teams meeting, the Red Sox will gain or lose ground on one of the two every day this weekend. I don’t care what Cruz or Weaver had to do the last two days in Houston. If the situation calls for it, they need to be used.

10. I don’t trust Boone to manage like that because I wouldn’t trust Boone to tell me what day of the week it is. We have eight years of games proving when given the opportunity to manage with urgency he won’t . Whether it’s Opening Day, a game in the middle of July or an elimination game in the World Series, Boone will always make the unfavorable decision that doesn’t put his team in the best possible position to succeed. It’s who he is and there’s no changing that. The only way the Yankees overcome their own manager is to outhit him (which is going to be hard against the Blue Jays or in the postseason) or for the relievers he calls on to get outs (which is going to be even harder since the bullpen is full of bums). Schlittler could be awesome on Friday, the offense could do enough against Gausman and the Yankees could still lose because of Boone and his bullpen management, just like they did on Wednesday in Houston.

The Yankees have to win at least two of three this weekend to have a chance at the division and likely need to win all three. If they win two, they will still be three games back because of the head-to-head tiebreaker, and even if they sweep, they will be in second place because of the tiebreaker. By late Sunday afternoon Yankees fans will know if the AL East and a bye to the ALDS are a real possibility again or if Yankees fans should start planning for the team’s first appearance in the best-of-3, wild-card series.

1. With a 4-1 lead over the Astros and 12 outs to go on Wednesday night, the Yankees were on their way to a second straight win over the Astros. If they could add to their lead or hold on to it, they would win back-to-back games against one of the other Top 5 teams in the American League for the first time since they swept a doubleheader from the Blue Jays on April 27.

The Yankees never added to their lead and couldn’t hold it either.

2. Will Warren went back out to the mound for the bottom of the sixth inning and with a three-run lead he threw a first-pitch, get-me-over breaking ball and Jeremy Pena destroyed it over the left-field wall to make it a 4-2 game. Aaron Boone immediately removed Warren from the game following the home run in favor of Fernando Cruz. If Warren’s leash was a single pitch, what was he doing on the mound to begin the sixth inning? If Boone was willing to remove Warren from the game after 67 pitches and get 12 outs from the bullpen, why not just go right to the bullpen to start the sixth rather than give the top of the Astros’ order a third look at Warren? Stealing outs, that’s why. No matter the situation or the importance of the game, Boone will always try to steal an out or two or an inning from his starter. Yordan Alvarez greeted Cruz with a double and after a wild pitch and a groundout, the Yankees’ lead was down to 4-3.

3. The Yankees went down 1-2-3 in the seventh and the Astros tied the game when Luke Weaver couldn’t navigate the bottom of the order, needing 22 pitches to get through the seventh, while giving up the game-tying run.

The Yankees went down 1-2-3 again in the eighth and the Astros once again went to work, lighting up Devin Williams for four earned runs as the righty was only able to get one out. Camilo Doval relieved Williams and did his best Brooks Kriske impression, allowing two runs to score on a single, another run to score on a balk and another run to score on a wild pitch. When the eighth was over, the Yankees trailed 8-4, having allowed one run in the fifth, two in the sixth, one in the seventh and four in the eighth. It was a magnificent implosion by the entire bullpen as Cruz, Weaver, Williams and Doval combined to allowed 10 baserunners and six earned runs in four innings.

The Yankees did their best to come back in the ninth with a three-run outburst against Bryan Abreu (who they always hit), but came up a run short in an 8-7 loss. Instead of starting off this 12-game stretch against the Astros, Blue Jays Tigers and Red Sox at 2-0, they’re now 1-1. They need to go at worst 5-5 over the remaining 10 games against the four teams to have a chance at the division and to put themselves in a position to host a best-of-3 wild-card series.

It was an enormous missed opportunity for the Yankees as the Red Sox lost and a win would have moved them to two games up in the loss column on the first wild-card spot. Instead, they remain one game up there and are now again three games back in the loss column in the division (though it’s really a four-game deficit with the Blue Jays having clinched the head-to-head tiebreaker).

4. Yes, home-plate umpire Brian Walsh was atrocious, and yes, he made egregious calls, most of which screwed the Yankees, but that can’t be an excuse for the loss. Walsh didn’t force Williams to throw an 0-2 fastball to Carlos Correa, which resulted in a leadoff double in the eighth inning with the scored tied at 4. He didn’t force Williams to throw a 3-1 changeup clearly out of the zone to 9-hitter Taylor Trammell with the bases loaded and the score tied at 4 in that same inning.

I’m not upset with Williams. He sucks. He didn’t ask to be traded to the Yankees. He didn’t ask to be the closer at the start of the season. He didn’t ask to remain the closer when he started blowing games. He didn’t ask to return to being the closer when Weaver got hurt. He didn’t name himself the closer even after the team traded for David Bednar. He isn’t the one who continues to put him in high-leverage situations he’s set up to fail in. What is he supposed to do? Not play Major League Baseball and not make millions of dollars to do so?

Boone’s loyalty over the years to players he shouldn’t be loyal to is extremely odd. It doesn’t matter what his relationship is with Williams, he has no reason to use him or believe in him the way he does and whenever this season winds up ending, Williams will no longer be a Yankee. Boone owes him nothing, and yet, he treats him like he owes him everything.

“When you’re making good pitches, which I was, not getting those calls really changes the course of an at-bat,” a delusional Williams said. Does he think Walsh is responsible for the Correa double and all three walks?

“I said, ‘I had four that you missed,’ and he threw me out for it,” Williams said. “Never been ejected in my career.”

Both Boone and Williams were ejected for arguing balls and strikes. Boone has openly said he is not for an automated strike zone and believes the game should still be called by the home-plate umpire. So why then does he complain about balls and strikes more than anyone in the game? Because it’s all he has. Boone doesn’t know how to motivate his players or what to do to get the best out of them. The only move he has or thinks he he has is to argue balls and strikes and get tossed when his team is playing poorly or losing. If the entire game became automated calls, Boone would lose his only motivational tactic, which does nothing to motivate.

5. Many times last year I said Clay Holmes would be allowed to ruin the season in the postseason and he was and nearly did when he allowed a walk-off home run in Game 3 of the ALCS and almost blew a four-run lead in Game 4. The same goes for Williams. He will ruin the season if he’s allowed to in the playoffs, and from everything I have seen this season and how Boone has used and treated him, Boone will undoubtedly put Williams in a position to ruin the season.

6. The loss on Wednesday was a one-run game. The Yankees lost a one-run game to the White Sox on Sunday. They came an inch away from losing what would have been a one-run game if that ball in Chicago landed fair instead of foul on Saturday. They lost a one-run game to the Red Sox two weeks ago. There’s a reason the Yankees lose so many close games and it’s because of Boone. The closer the game, the more important he becomes as the bullpen, pinch-hit and baserunning decision maker. His bullpen management was every bit as bad as the bullpen pitched on Wednesday. Not only that, but with the game tied at 4 in the eighth and a guaranteed at-bat against a lefty available, Boone let Ben Rice hit instead of using Paul Goldschmidt. Rice weakly grounded out to first. What’s the point of having such platoon depth on the roster if the manager is incapable of utilizing it?

7. “The Astros are one team Aaron Judge does not excel against,” Michael Kay said during Wednesday’s game. No shit, Michael. That’s why the Yankees were eliminated by the Astros in 2017, 2019 and 2022. Judge went 6-for-24 with 11 strikeouts in 2017, 6-for-25 with 10 strikeouts in 2019 and 1-for-16 with four strikeouts in 2022. For all of the regular-season success the Yankees have had against the Astros, including the lengthy winning streak in Houston which ended on Wednesday, the Yankees went 4-12 against them in those three ALCS. Judge went 1-for-5 on Wednesday, while the Astros’ star slugger in Alvarez went 4-for-5 as his bat single-handedly ignited the Astros come back, tied the game and took the lead.

8. It was another stellar night for Anthony Volpe. Through the first two games of the series, Volpe botched a routine double play and is 0-for-7 with four strikeouts. His 6-for-14 series against the White Sox was enough for him to never be benched again this season even though it succeeded a 1-for-38 and preceded the now 0-for-7. I’m glad Volpe will continue to play every day because of what he did one weekend in Chicago against the worst team in the AL and the second-worst team in the majors.

9. The series and regular-season finale between the Yankees and Astros will feature Carlos Rodon against Christian Javier. No pitcher has owned the Yankees in recent years like Javier and even though he has only made 11 starts over the last two seasons due to injury, I can’t say I feel even a hint of confidence with him going on Thursday. Add in Rodon and the Crawford Boxes in left field and the near-zero confidence decreases even more.

10. Thursday’s game is immensely important. The Yankees have a game in hand on the blue Jays and two games in hand on the Red Sox. Those games in hand need to be wins. A loss puts the Yankees four back in the loss column on the Blue Jays and five overall because of the tiebreaker and essentially ends all division hope without a Yankees sweep of the Blue Jays this weekend. A loss would tie the Yankees again with the Red Sox in the loss column for the top wild-card spot and because the Red Sox hold the tiebreaker the Yankees would be back in a position to go on the road for the first best-of-3. A win on Thursday keeps them right where they are, in comeback distance of the Blue Jays with the three-game series this weekend in the Bronx and ahead of the Red Sox in the wild-card standings. Thursday is the newest most important game of the season for the Yankees.

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.

1. After putting up a 10-spot on Thursday, the Yankees did the same on Friday, blowing out the last-place White Sox 10-2. It was the third straight game the Yankees scored double-digit runs, the fourth time in five games they have done so and the sixth time in less two weeks. If only under-.500 teams were part of the postseason the Yankees would be all set.

2. Yes, these wins against bad teams are needed and every one of the 162 games in a season are valuable, but again, the stench left from the Red Sox series and from series against teams currently holding a playoff spot as a whole throughout the season lingers like a skunk waiting for you when you open your garage door. It’s going to take a lot more than tomato baths to remove the smell of this Yankees team, and there’s nothing they can do this weekend to do so. It’s going to take winning games and series over the next two weeks against the Astros, Blue Jays, Tigers and Red Sox to change my perception of a team that pads its stats, run differential and win total against the league’s worst and is humiliated by the league’s best. I’m going to need see the offense show up against pitchers the Yankees didn’t put on waivers earlier this season. I’m going to need to see Jazz Chisholm get a runner in from third with one out against a reliever who will be pitching in October, not flipping his bat during a blowout of a bad team.

3. Again, these games against the lowly White Sox are important, just as the ones against the Nationals, Rays, Cardinals and Twins earlier this month were. But after the Yankees beat the crap out of those teams, they erased everything they accomplished by losing two games in the standings in a single weekend to the Red Sox. That can’t happen again. If the Yankees want to win the division like Chisholm talked about on Thursday, or even win home-field advantage for the wild-card series, they can’t poop their pants next week when they play the best competition in the American League.

5. While the Yankees were lighting up their former teammate in Yoendrys Gomez, the Red Sox lost a home game to the Pirates and the Blue Jays did the same to the Brewers. The Yankees are now one game up in the loss column on the Red Sox for the first wild-card berth and three games back of the Blue Jays in the AL East.

6. As I wrote yesterday, in terms of winning the division, the math is very bad for the Yankees. Possible? Yes. Likely? No. At least from a statistical perspective. But that perspective is based on the teams’ winning percentage to date and their run differential. If you look at the remaining schedules, I do think it’s doable.

If the Yankees are able to pull off a four-game sweep of the White Sox, there’s a very real possibility they could be one game back of the Blue Jays at the end of play on Sunday. (The Brewers have a starting pitching advantage over the Blue Jays on both Saturday and Sunday.) If the Yankees are one game back as of Sunday with 25 games to play, yes I do think they will win the division. Even if they are still three games back as of Sunday, I think they could win the division. I know that sounds crazy, and yes, it is, but hear me out.

Disclaimer: Winning the division isn’t possible if the Yankees’ 12 games over the next two weeks against the Astros, Blue Jays, Tigers and Red Sox play out like the 26 games against those opponents have so far this season: the Yankees are 7-19 against those teams.

7. For this exercise, let’s make it as hard as possible for the Yankees to win the division. Let’s say they are three games back of the Blue Jays after Sunday. The Yankees will have to go at least .500 in the 12 games against the Astros, Blue Jays, Tigers and Red Sox to have a chance. So let’s say they go 6-6, which is the floor of what they can do. Two of those six wins have to come against the Blue Jays and two more have to come against the Red Sox. That means 4-2 against the Blue Jays and Red Sox and 2-4 against the Astros and Tigers.

Let’s say the Yankees drop one of their two games this weekend and so do the Blue Jays. The Yankees would be 76-61 at the end of play on Sunday and the Blue Jays 79-58.

The Yankees then go 6-6 against the Astros, Blue Jays, Tigers and Red Sox and are now 82-67. The Blue Jays have lost two of three to the Yankees during that time, so they are 80-60. In their other nine games, the Blue Jays have gone 4-5 against the Reds, Astros and Orioles and are now 84-65. There are now 13 games left and the Yankees are two games back in the loss column (82-67 to 84-65), but they are really three games back from taking over the division because the Blue Jays already clinched the head-to-head tiebreaker.

The Yankees’ 13 remaining games are against the Twins (3), Orioles (4), White Sox (3) and Orioles (3).

The Blue Jays’ 13 remaining games are against the Rays (4), Royals (3), Red Sox (3) and Rays (3).

That Yankees series against the White Sox is crucial because with the Blue Jays and Red Sox playing each other at the same time, every win means the Yankees gain ground on one of the two and every loss means they lose a game on one of the two. The Blue Jays’ seven remaining games against the Rays are also crucial because they have struggled against the Rays this season, going 1-5.

If the Yankees go 9-4 in those 13 games (one loss in each series) and the Blue Jays go 6-7 in their 13 games, the Yankees win the division. If the Yankees go 8-5, then the Blue Jays need to go 5-8. Unlikely. If the Yankees go 7-6, the Blue Jays need to go 4-9. Very unlikely. I think 9-4 is the floor of what needs to happen, and that may not be good enough.

8. That is a not-so-far-fetched path to winning the division. It could be made a lot easier if the Yankees would just rip off 10 straight wins (like the Blue Jays and Red Sox have both done this season) and the Blue Jays and Red Sox both fall apart. That would be much easier with no math and scoreboard watching involved. Just a good, old-fashioned, double-digit win streak coupled with simultaneous collapses from the Blue Jays and Red Sox. But that’s an abundance of wishful thinking, considering a great deal of wishful thinking is already needed for the Yankees to play well against the league’s best and continue to beat up on the league’s worst. (All of this would be meaningless if the Yankees could have just not blown their eight-game lead over the Blue Jays.)

9. As of now, here is how the pitching matchups line up for the next two weeks:

Saturday: Cam Schlittler vs. Shane Smith
Sunday: Luis Gil vs. Martin Perez
Monday: Off
Tuesday: Max Fried vs. Jason Alexander
Wednesday: Will Warren vs. Christian Javier
Thursday: Carlos Rodon vs. Spencer Arrighetti
Friday: Cam Schlittler vs. Kevin Gausman
Saturday: Luis Gil vs. Max Scherzer
Sunday: Max Fried vs. Chris Bassitt
Monday: Off
Tuesday: Will Warren vs. Casey Mize
Wednesday: Carlos Rodon vs. Chris Paddack
Thursday: Cam Schlittler vs. Jack Flaherty
Friday: Luis Gil vs. Lucas Giolito
Saturday: Max Fried vs. Brayan Bello
Sunday: Will Warren vs. Garrett Crochet

Based on this, the Yankees do miss Framber Valdez, Hunter Brown, Shane Bieber and Tarik Skubal, but having to face Bello and Crochet is as bad as it gets, considering what those two have done to the Yankees this year (the Yankees are 0-5 in games started by those two). It could haven’t been Giolito, Dustin May and rookie Payton Tolle?! Pitchers get hurt and teams adjust their rotations around scheduled days off for important series, so this could all change, but as of now, it’s a better schedule of opposing starters than I figured it would play out to be.

10. Before I get too far ahead of myself and start planning for the strong finish, division title and best-of-3 bye, the Yankees can’t go out and lose on Saturday and Sunday with the Blue Jays winning both days to fall five games back. If that happens, the division is over. And because a Yankees extended winning streak into next week isn’t likely given the opponents and it’s less likely the Blue Jays implode, the deficit can’t go higher than three again. The Yankees have to maintain the deficit or gain on the Blue Jays from here on and out (and oh yeah, also have the Red Sox cooperate and not sneak in win the division themselves).