The Yankees have ended their slide and threat of completing the worst game-lead collapse in baseball history. After sweeping a two-game series from the Red Sox, the Yankees have now won four straight and eight of 10.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. With the Blue Jays and Rays meeting for a five-game series over four days, the Yankees needed to go Fenway Park and beat up on the last-place Red Sox. If they didn’t, they would miss out on an opportunity to gain ground each day over either the Blue Jays or Rays, and would in turn lose ground each day on either the Blue or Rays. Thankfully, the Yankees took care of their own business against the lowly Red Sox (something they have had trouble doing in their last few series against them), and officially put the division away.

I originally wrote the blog titled AL East Race Is Over on June 20. At the time, the math said the Yankees would win the AL East with ease win an 11-game lead. By July 8, the math was playing out exactly as expected, and the Yankees’ lead was up to 15 1/2 games. But over the next two months, the Yankees pissed away everything they achieved in the first third of the season and just a week ago, the Rays had the division lead in the loss column down to two games.

Prior to the last series against the Rays, I wrote:

Right now, I’m moderately worried about the Yankees’ completing the single biggest game-lead collapse in baseball history. I’m a 6.7 out of 10 worried. Five days ago, I was a 9.1. If the loss column lead is zero on Sunday afternoon, I will be a 10, and a 10 is stock-up-on-bottled-water-and-batteries-to-go-into-hiding-level bad.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to go off the grid and spend the next seven months until Opening Day 2023 wondering what happened. The Yankees righted the ship with two wins against the Red Sox after winning an all-important series against the Rays and have now won four straight and eight of 10.

2. Do I think the Yankees are back to being the on-pace-for-122-win team they were at one point this year? No. I never thought the 2022 Yankees were close to being built like the 1998 Yankees despite the endless comparisons between the two and their similar records in late April, May and early June. The Yankees still have enormous flaws and an abundance of question marks that are on display each day and were once again in the two games at Fenway Park.

3. In the first game in Boston, the Yankees needed a pair of game-tying solo home runs from Aaron Judge in the sixth and eighth inning to avoid losing a game started by Gerrit Cole going against Nick Pivetta. When they broke a 4-4 tie with three runs in the 10th inning, they nearly gave it all back, allowing two runs to score in the bottom of the 10th to hang on to win 7-6.

In the second game, they couldn’t solve rookie Brayan Bello, who entered the game with a 5.79 ERA, having allowed an astounding 67 baserunners in 37 1/3 innings. The Yankees finally broke through in the fifth when Gleyber Torres hit a two-out single with runners on first and second and the Red Sox thew the ball around the field allowing the two baserunners to score as well as Torres in what Suzyn Waldman described as a “comedy of errors.” Leading 5-2 entering the ninth, Clay Holmes did everything he could to blow yet another game against Red Sox, allowing a run to score and only managing to get out of the inning by an overturned call when J.D. Martinez thankfully missed stepping on first base on a groundout.

4. In the 18 non-extra, non-automatic runner innings at Fenway, the Yankees scored nine runs. Three of those runs came on the “comedy of errors” play. Two of them came on Judge solo home runs. That leaves four non-error-produced or Judge-produced runs. So the theme with the team remains the same that they can’t score unless Judge is carrying the offense or unless they are helped out by the opposing defense.

The offense the Yankees keep running out there isn’t the offense we expect to see in the postseason, but it could be. There’s no guarantee all five of DJ LeMahieu, Anthony Rizzo, Matt Carpenter, Andrew Benintendi and Harrison Bader will return or will return to the best of their abilities or return be able to play. (I think just about all of them have to come back and have to come back to the best of their abilities for the Yankees to have a chance at winning a championship.) So for now, you have to think the lineup you see on a daily basis from the Yankees is the one you will get in the postseason, until some of those five names return (if they return).

5. If 2018-19 Torres still existed, the loss of those other five worst hurt less. Torres had a big series in Boston, going 4-for-10 with a double and four RBIs, after going 5-for-14 with two home runs and five RBIs in three games against the Rays.

I keep seeing and hearing that 2018-19 Torres is back. No. Just no. This is a five-game sample size. What about the other five months? What about the last nearly three years? This is what Torres does. He has a strong few games and coaxes fans into thinking 2018-19 Torres has returned and then he follows it up with a month-long slump.

Torres stared the season with an .856 OPS through the first week, and there were Yankees fans thinking he had found his old swing. Did his change of positioning  back to second get him going? Did his approach at the plate change? It was neither as Torres then hit .223/.266/.423 over his next 38 games. The following three weeks, Torres went off with a .355/.412/.726 slash line, hitting five home runs in 17 games. Was this the return of old Gleyber? It wasn’t. Torres spent the summer months going hot then extremely cold and from the beginning of August until the beginning of the September (yes, an an entire month), he had the lowest OPS of all players in Major League Baseball, hitting .172/.193/.241 over 119 plate appearances.

So it’s nice that Torres is contributing offensively of late after not for basically the entire season (and the previous two seasons). It’s nice that he has 21 home runs and has somewhat found his power stroke without the juiced baseball. But this is still a player that despite his most recent hot streak (which is just five games), is hitting .244/.294/.429 in 514 plate appearances this season.

I won’t care how bad Torres was in 2020 or 2021 or the majority of 2022 if he shows up this postseason like he did in 2019 when he pounded the Twins (5-for-12 with three doubles, one home run and four RBIs) in the ALDS, or when he (.933 OPS, two home runs and six RBIs) and DJ LeMahieu tried to beat the Astros by themselves in the ALCS. Everyone gets a clean slate come the first pitch of the postseason.

6. That includes Aaron Hicks, though I really don’t see how he can even be on the postseason roster at this point. Despite Boone pulling Hicks from the game against the Ryas last Friday, Hicks is still aBoone favorite and Boone will do everything he can to play Hicks.

Hicks found himself pinch hitting for Jose Trevino on Friday night in the 10th inning, drawing a walk in the process. At the time of the walk, I joked that the walk was enough to get Hicks back in the starting lineup, but it wasn’t really a joke as the following night there was Hicks unbenched yet again and starting in the second game of the series. How did he do? Exactly how you would expect: 0-for-4.

Hicks is now hitting .209/.324/.293 on the season. A slugging percentage that most lower than an on-base percentage is preposterous. He has seven doubles in 408 plate appearances and seven home runs, having last homered on July 9. If you’re surprised, don’t be. This is a player who told The Athletic last month, “If I’m a guy that’s in the lineup, cool. If I’m not, it is what it is.”

I don’t see how Hicks can be on the postseason roster, and the moment Bader, Benintendi or Carpenter return (again, if they do), Hicks shouldn’t see the field again as a Yankee. Not just this season, but future seasons as well. Trade him for whatever you can get, eat whatever money you need, attached a low-level prospect to him or release him. I don’t care. He can’t be a Yankee again in 2023. Seven seasons of him was seven too many.

7. I’m tired of explaining how ridiculous it is that Isiah Kiner-Felafa continues to play over Oswald Peraza when he was supposed to be a stopgap until Peraza was ready, and now Peraza is ready dnd being blocked by the stopgap. If Peraza isn’t going to play (like he hasn’t been) then there’s no point of him being in the majors. Send him down and stop ruining his development.

8. It’s never been more evident for fools and idiots who think Boone doesn’t control the lineup despite repeated public admissions of exactly that by Brian Cashman. How do you think Kiner-Falefa keeps playing over Peraza? How do you think Hicks keeps finding his way off the bench and into the lineup? Why do you think Josh Donaldson continues to be treated like it’s 2015 and he’s the AL MVP? There’s no front office employee of any team in all of baseball dumb enough to make decisions like that. It takes a know-it-all manager and supposed lifer who uses personal relationships and clubhouse loyalty to determine playing time instead of production. Boone has always favored veterans no matter how bad they may be (and Kiner-Faleafa and Hicks and Donaldson are very bad) over rookies or young players.

9. Thanks to the odd days off this postseason (reminiscent of the 2009 playoffs), the schedule works heavily in the Yankees’ favor (like it did in 2009) in terms of their rotation. The Yankees are undoubtedly going to give the ball to Gerrit Cole in Game 1, but after him is anyone’s guess. The Yankees could use Cole in Game 1 and then again in Game 4 on normal rest or in Game 5 with an extra day of rest. The Game 2 starter could also return for Game 5 on three days of rest. The Yankees could get through the ALDS with only three starters, but most likely, they will need four. The four they are clearly hoping to have are Cole, Nestor Cortes, Luis Severino and Frankie Montas in some order. Health will determine who’s available and then I’m sure the opponent will determine the order. If Severino comes back and is his early-season self, he has to be used before Montas. You could even say he should be used before Cortes, but then there would be pushback that Cortes has been the Yankees’ best starter all season, which is true. But if the Yankees made decisions based on actual performance, Cortes would be the Game 1 starter, and players like Kiner-Falefa, Donaldson and Hicks wouldn’t be everyday players on the 2022 Yankees.

10. The Yankees’ lead in the loss column is back up to seven over both Blue Jays and Rays. The Yankees have three games left with the Blue Jays and none with the Rays. If the Yankees win one of their remaining three games with the Blue Jays, they clinch the season series and the head-to-head tiebreaker, which will be used to determine the division winner (if needed).

The Yankees have 19 games left. After this weekend against the Brewers, they will play six straight against last-place teams in the Pirates and Red Sox. The division is safe once again. The remaining 19 games and the next 25 days are about preparing for the postseason, and that means getting healthy. The Yankees aren’t going anywhere in October with the current state of the roster.

Now that the division is safe, instead of scoreboard for the next three weeks, I will be rehab game and injury update watching. That’s more important than what the competition is doing.

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The Yankees got back on track with a series win over the Rays to finish their homestand at 5-2. With wins in six of their last eight, the Yankees’ division lead is still intact.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The Yankees are safe … for now. They are safe for the moment from completing the worst and most embarrassing game-lead collapse in baseball history. After winning on Saturday and Sunday (and somehow scoring 20 runs in the process), the Yankees have no remaining games left with the Rays. The Rays’ AL East chances are finished. But the Rays are no longer the issue, the Blue Jays are.

The Blue Jays have won eight of 10, including beating the Rays on Monday, and while they are the same five games back in the loss column of the Yankees as the Rays, the Blue Jays still have three games left against the Yankees. The Yankees hold a 9-7 lead in the season series, but a Blue Jays sweep would get the Blue Jays three games closer to the Yankees and clinch the head-to-head tiebreaker, which will be used to determine the division winner.

The Blue Jays and Rays began a five-game series yesterday, and Yankees fans should be pulling for one team winning three of the five. Can’t have a Blue Jays sweep (since they won the first game) or even a 4-1 series from the Blue Jays.

2. Well, the Yankees could afford to have the Blue Jays win four or five from the Rays if the Yankees take care of their own business, but if you trust the Yankees to take care of their business then you haven’t watched this team since June 19 (in which they are 36-40 since).

The Yankees will see the Red Sox for a two-game series at Fenway sandwiched around two days off, and while the Yankees have been the only team to have trouble beating the Red Sox this year, they need to do so over the next two days. The last-place Red Sox have given up on 2022 after regressing to become the team they should have been in 2021, and have been losing nearly every day, and the Yankees can’t let up just because of one good week since mid-June.

3. Saturday’s first inning was bizarre with the Yankees starting the game with seven straight singles. Some were hard-hit line drives, but there were a bunch of ground balls that found holes, as well as a ground ball that hit Corey Kluber and turned into a base hit. I like to think that was Kluber’s way of giving back to Yankees fans after all of his bad starts and missed time in his one season as a Yankee in 2021.

Sunday was also bizarre. Luis Patino typically dominates the Yankees, and he got lit up. Maybe the Yankees had something on Patino, or maybe it was just a bad start. It’s truly hard to believe the Yankees went from being unable to score three runs per game to flipping a switch and now being capable of putting up double-digit totals without DJ LeMahieu, Matt Carpenter and Anthony Rizzo.

4. Gleyber Torres went 5-for-14 against the Rays with two home runs and five RBIs. His OPS is back over .700 at .719 and he has 21 home runs on the year now. I don’t think Torres is “back” to the player he was in 2018 or 2019 based on one three-game series. That player is gone and never coming back. This is what Torres does and has done for the last three seasons. He sucks for an extended period of time, has a few good games to make you think he might have found or unlocked something from his first two years only for him to go back into another extended period of time sucking. Torres always does just enough to momentarily save his lineup spot or to make Aaron Boone think he’s right by batting Torres first, second or third. Torres isn’t good. He hasn’t been in four years. Don’t believe otherwise.

5. New-father Josh Donaldson returned from paternity leave, bat flipped a ball off the right-field wall and jogged himself into a single. It was more of the same from the asshole of the team immediately after missing three games. Donaldson had himself a nice two games against the Rays and has a four-game hit streak (yes, getting excited about a four-game hit streak from a $24 million per year player and former AL MVP is something), but like Torres, don’t buy into it. Donaldson’s season OPS still sits below .700 at .697, and he has been an utter disappointment and outright embarrassment. That’s not going to stop Boone from playing him every day at third base and batting him in the middle of the Yankees’ lineup.

6. Apparently, nothing is going to stop the Yankees from playing Isiah Kiner-Falefa every day. Both Hal Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman said publicly prior to Opening Day that the team didn’t sign a big-name free agent because they had Oswald Peraza and Anthony Volpe in the minors and wanted to give them a chance. Well, Peraza earned his way to the majors, and all he has done since arriving is play out of position and sit on the bench. The Yankees are now stunting his growth and development in favor of Kiner-Falefa, who they admitted was a pure stopgap until one or both of Peraza/Volpe were ready. I know Kiner-Falefa has no say in the matter, and he’s not the one playing himself over Peraza, but it’s making me despise Kiner-Falefa because of what his presence on the team and in the lineup represents.

7. Remember when the Yankees’ plan was to go into 2022 with the catching tandem of Kyle Higashioka and Ben Rortvedt? If Rortvedt doesn’t get hurt in spring training, the Yankees likely don’t trade for Jose Trevino, and we are stuck watching Higashioka be the near-everyday catcher all season, and Rortvedt being the backup. Rortvedt was up with the Yankees this past week with Trevino on paternity leave, and he didn’t see the field once. Rortvedt was also part of the trade that brought over Donaldson and Kiner-Falefa in what continues to be a disastrous deal for the Yankees.

8. Back on August 9, I wrote Yankees Have Finally Given Up on Aaron Hicks. At the time, Hicks hadn’t had an extra-base hit in a month and was 3-for-38 over the previous two weeks. The Yankees had traded for Andrew Benintendi and Harrison Bader and made it clear Hicks was no longer an everyday player for the team despite having three more years left on his contract (and a fourth year that will be bought out for $1 million).

After Hicks went 0-for-3 and grounded out into yet another play with the bases loaded on August 15, he didn’t start another game for six days, going 0-for-3 with a strikeout in that one. Then he didn’t start for a week and then another three days after that start. When Benintendi injured his wrist on a swing on September 2, it forced Hicks into more playing time. Following his unbenching, Hicks went 2-for-21 with strikeouts and no walks. No walks from the guy his supporters (or former supporters since I can’t imagine there are any left) will tell you he does well.

On Friday night against the Rays, Hicks went 0-for-2 with two strikeouts. In the top of the fourth, Hicks misplayed a ball off his glove, and then stood and stared at the wall while two Rays runs scored and the ball sat on the ground. The very next batter hit a line drive at Hicks, and Hicks twisted and turned his way into letting the ball go over his head. After the inning ended, Boone removed Hicks from the game for Estevan Florial. The same Florial that Boone told the media was called up to play, and yet he was sitting once again for Hicks.

After the game, Boone tried to explain that Hicks wasn’t pulled for the misplay, acting once again as though every media member and Yankees fan is an absolute moron, incapable of having their own thought. Boone said he “just needed to get Hicks out of there.” What a coincidence Boone happened to pull a healthy Hicks from a game at the same time he had struck out twice, misplayed two balls in the outfield and had the left-field bleachers treating him like he was Manny Ramirez.

Hicks said the opposite. He said he was benched, completely negating the most ridiculous lie Boone has ever told as Yankees manager.

I wish I could say Hicks won’t be on the postseason roster this October or off the Yankees completely in 2023, but I can’t. Hicks is owed more than $30 million, and Steinbrenner would rather try to salvage even a penny of that money than release Hicks and open up the roster spot to someone deserving of being a major leaguer and a New York Yankee.

Hicks has now been demoted and benched from his everyday role for the second time in a month. This coming after Higashioka became the backup catcher, Joey Gallo was traded, the Yankees called up Peraza because of Kiner-Falefa’s play and pray daily LeMahieu comes back as his normal self so that they can play him over Torres or Donaldson (the duo the Yankees tried to trade at the deadline). All of those players were supposed to be everyday players for the 2022 Yankees. Nearly half the expected lineup for the 2022 Yankees in spring training is gone, traded, benched or actively being replaced. That’s some impressive roster construction and management from Cashman.

9. Last week, I wrote two blogs titled Giancarlo Stanton and Josh Donaldson Can’t Be Automatic Outs and Giancarlo Stanton Needs to Start Hitting. Donaldson had a good few games and so did Giancarlo Stanton after finally being able to provide more than one plate appearance per game. Stanton homered in back-to-back games against the Rays (though one came against a position player, and if I’m not going to count it for Hicks and Higashioka from earlier in the season then I’m not going to count it for Stanton). But overall, Stanton looked better at the plate and was actually making contact with middle-middle fastballs rather than missing them completely or fouling them back to the screen. When Stanton’s timing is down, he tends to go off on a home run barrage (until the inevitable next time his timing is off and he looks like he’s blindfolded at the plate), and syncing up this potential hot streak with a trip to Fenway Park is exactly what the Yankees need to get closer to clinching the division.

10. I don’t think the Yankees are suddenly some juggernaut or contender because they won a couple of games against the Rays and beat up on the Twins. Winning six of their last eight isn’t impressive, it was a necessity after they couldn’t beat the Angels or A’s or Cardinals or Red Sox or Pirates or Reds and after they nearly pissed away a 15 1/2-game lead.

After the Yankees had accumulated that 15 1/2-game lead, they were managed and played as if they had clinched a postseason berth, giving even more unnecessary rest than usual to everyday players and managing the rotation and bullpen as if every pitcher on the roster was returning from from Tommy John surgery.

The Yankees have had to mange and play with urgency these past few weeks because of everything they undid over the last nearly three months. They can’t stop with that urgency until the AL East magic number is 0, and it’s currently at 17 with 21 to play. Once the division is clinched, the Yankees can manage, play and act like they won the division. Until then, The Yankees need to manage and play as if they haven’t accomplished anything yet because they haven’t.

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The Yankees four-game winning streak came to an end on Thursday with a disappointing one-run loss to the Twins. After an abysmal August, the Yankees needed to see the Twins on the schedule.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. Following Sunday’s series finale against the Rays, if the Yankees had any other team on the schedule other than the Twins for a four-game series, it’s likely the Yankees’ 15 1/2-game collapse complete. Because while the Yankees were winning three of four against the Twins, the Rays were sweeping the last-place Red Sox. The Yankees needed a big week to pause their free fall, and a big week is what they got against the team they have owned for the last 20 years.

It should have been bigger and needed to be bigger. No, you can’t expect to sweep a four-game series, let alone one against a good team like the Twins. But when you spend an entire month playing .357 baseball, you need to sweep a four-game home series against the Twins, even if they are good. The Yankees put themselves in the situation of now needing to do unexpected.

2. Aaron Boone did his best to put together early-March spring training lineups over the four games, and also did his best to manage his team to losses. But thankfully, not even Boone’s inept in-game managing could lead the Twins to overcoming their issues with beating the Yankees.

3. I truly enjoy Isiah Kiner-Falefa supporters saying “See!” after Kiner-Falefa hit two home runs in the series, including a grand slam. Please. He now has three home runs in 123 games, a .653 OPS and kicks around the ball at short. One or two games isn’t going to erase the disastrous decision to trade for him, take on Josh Donaldson’s salary to acquire him, not sign either Carlos Correa or Corey Seager because of him and then play him every day over Oswald Peraza and Anthony Volpe. Kiner-Falefa’s Baseball Savant page is still full of blue as 99 percent of the league has a better barrel rate than him, 94 percent of the league hits the ball harder than him and 90 percentage of the league has a better average exit velocity than him. Kiner-Falefa does one thing well: he makes contact. However, when he makes contact, it’s weak contact, so it cancels out the fact that he makes contact. Play any borderline major leaguer every single day for a full season like the Yankees have with him and he will run into a few long balls along the way. (Just ask Aaron Hicks.)

4. Kiner-Falefa’s big series against the team that fleeced the Yankees to move him came while he was playing third base. I would welcome Kiner-Falefa at third if meant Donaldson not playing, but we all know that’s not going to happen. Once Donaldson is back, Kiner-Falefa will go back to short and Peraza will go to the bench. You know, the player Hal Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman cited as the reason for not signing a big-name free-agent shortstop. The player Kiner-Falefa was supposed to be a stopgap for until ready. Well, he’s ready, he’s playing an awesome shortstop and hitting major-league pitching, and yet, no one can expect him to play once Donaldson returns from paternity leave. Yankees baseball!

5. It took one good day for Kiner-Falefa to find himself batting cleanup the next day, and it took one double for Aaron Hicks to go from being benched to batting leadoff the next day. When you’re a Boone favorite and front office favorite (like those two are), it doesn’t take much to be rewarded. Don’t be surprised if you see equally crazy shit like Hicks leading off and Kiner-Falefa batting cleanup this weekend against the Rays in what is the biggest series of the season … again.

6. The Yankees’ cleanup hitter should be Giancarlo Stanton, but apparently, he’s unable to play with any regularity … again. Stanton was unavailable to pinch hit for Ronald Guzman (who I hope to never see play a game for the Yankees again), but was able to pinch hit in the ninth inning one day later. I guess one day magically healed him.

Of course Stanton could have pinch hit on Wednesday. It was absurd he didn’t. Not as absurd as the Yankees waiting an extended amount of unnecessary time to play shorthanded before putting Anthony Rizzo and DJ LeMahieu on the injured list, but absurd nonetheless.

The Yankees got a good-but-not-great age 28 season out of Stanton in 2018, in which he played a solid portion of the season with a hamstring issue. They got 18 games from his age 29 season, and 23 of 60 games in the shortened 2020 season when he was 30. Last year, they were able to get 137 games out of him at age 31, but this year, at age 32, he has missed 34 percent of the season. As a Yankee, he has missed 37 percent of the team’s regular-season games, covering his age 28 through 32 seasons. His contract runs through his age 37 season and then he will be bought out for $10 million for his age 38 season. He’s a problem now at age 32. I wonder how the next five years will go.

Stanton returned from his Achilles injury on August 25 and drove in three runs in 13-4 win over the A’s. Since then, he’s 3-for-35 (I don’t even remember the three hits), hitting .086/.180/.086. Just three singles in 39 plate appearances.

Since Monday when I wrote a Yankees Thoughts blog titled Yankees Thoughts: Giancarlo Stanton and Josh Donaldson Can’t Be Automatic Outs, Stanton has been a combination of hitless and injured.

7. The Yankees are without LeMahieu, Rizzo, Matt Carpenter, Andrew Benintendi (and to a much lesser extent, Harrison Bader). It seems like LeMahieu will have to play through his toe injury for the rest of the season. I don’t have great confidence in Rizzo coming back and being a middle-of-the-order threat even though Boone will bat him in the middle of the order. Carpenter is still being held back from baseball activities for two more weeks, and Benintendi’s chances of coming back seem to be closer to a prayer than likely. The Yankees can’t have Stanton being an automatic out. They can’t have him being even 80 percent of his abilities. They need him to be the guy who won the All-Star Game MVP and who’s the highest-paid position player on the team. And they need it now. Not next week or the week after when the collapse could be complete. Now.

8. Anyone who thinks Shohei Ohtani should be the AL MVP over Aaron Judge shouldn’t be allowed to vote in elections, obtain a driver’s license, own property or have children. Judge isn’t just the only choice for MVP, he’s possibly the most deserving of the MVP award in the history of baseball. Without him, the Yankees aren’t a postseason team. He’s the most valuable, most important, best player in the majors this season. It’s not debatable.

9. With 24 games left, the Rays’ elimination number is way too high at 22. (Any combination of Yankees wins and Rays losses equaling 22 will eliminate the Rays from the division.) The Yankees can lower that number to 16 by Sunday afternoon, and if they do so, the Rays’ recent attempt to overtake the Yankees will be over.

I don’t think that will happen. I would like it to happen, but if you think this version of the Yankees in which Hicks could bat leadoff and Kiner-Falefa cleanup this weekend is going to sweep the Rays, you likely think Cashman has done a good job in recent years as general manager and that the Steinbrenner family cares about winning like their father did.

I can’t say Just don’t get swept because I think losing two of three this weekend will put the Yankees in a horrendous spot, even if the Rays have 16 games left against the Blue Jays and Astros. I don’t think the Blue Jays are that good, and the Astros will have the AL West clinched soon and the AL 1-seed shortly after that. Who knows what their lineup or level of care will be when they face the Rays from September 19-21 and again from September 30-October 2.

10. A series win this weekend would get the elimination number down to 18 with 21 to play. (Still too high for my liking, but that’s what you get when you piss away two-and-a-half months of the season.) The Yankees can’t lose the series. (I mean, sure, they can, and odds are they will, but they can’t.) And they certainly can’t get swept. (Again, sure, they can, but they can’t.)

Right now, I’m moderately worried about the Yankees’ completing the single biggest game-lead collapse in baseball history. I’m a 6.7 out of 10 worried. Five days ago, I was a 9.1. If the loss column lead is zero on Sunday afternoon, I will be a 10, and a 10 is stock-up-on-bottled-water-and-batteries-to-go-into-hiding-level bad. So if the Yankees get swept, and you don’t hear from me with Thoughts about the series by Monday morning, just know I’m safe.

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