A month ago, the Yankees trailed the Red Sox by eight games. Today, they are ahead of the Red Sox and hold a playoff spot for the first time in nearly three months.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The sun is shining a little brighter today after the Yankees swept the Red Sox in a doubleheader on Tuesday to hold a playoff spot for the first time since the end of May. The Yankees’ two wins moved them past the Red Sox for the second wild card and when the A’s lost on Tuesday night, the Yankees moved past them for the first wild card.

How did the Yankees get here? By winning, of course, and winning at a ridiculous rate. Here are the Yankees’ records since specific July checkpoints:

Since the second game of the doubleheader against the Mets on July 4: 27-11

Since the All-Star break: 22-9

Since losing three of four to the Red Sox from July 22-25: 17-5

Since the trade deadline: 15-4

The Yankees began the second half of the season needing to play nearly .700 baseball for the remaining 73 games and go 50-23, and so far they have been even better than that wishful thinking, playing .710 baseball.

2. Be happy today. Be very happy. But don’t be content. The goal is to win the World Series, not win a wild-card berth. And the best path to winning the World Series is to advance to the ALDS by avoiding a one-game playoff, in which anything could go wrong. That means overcoming the five-game deficit to the Rays with 43 games left.

3. Back on July 14, coming out of the All-Star break, I wrote Yankees Thoughts: Path to Postseason Isn’t Pretty. In that I had this path to the postseason with the Yankees needing to win 50 of 73 games:

Red Sox: 10-4
Phillies: 1-1
Rays: 4-2
Marlins: 2-1
Orioles: 7-2
Mariners: 3-1
Royals: 2-1
White Sox: 2-1
Angels: 3-1
Twins: 3-1
Braves: 1-1
A’s: 2-2
Blue Jays: 4-3
Mets: 2-1
Indians: 2-1
Rangers: 2-1

The current path is now:

Red Sox: 2-2
Twins: 3-1
Braves/Indians/Rangers: 6-2
A’s: 2-2
Angels: 2-1
Orioles: 5-1
Blue Jays: 4-3
Mets: 2-1
Rays: 2-1

4. The last few times I have updated the path to 96 wins, I have written, “Again, not crazy. Also, not likely.” Now it’s actually likely. That right there is a 28-14 record, the equivalent of winning two of every three games for the next six weeks. The Yankees have been doing so while not close to full strength. They just got Gerrit Cole, Jordan Montgomery and Gary Sanchez back. Anthony Rizzo is close to returning, Gio Urshela is beginning baseball activities, Gleyber Torres is working out, Aroldis Chapman is throwing and Corey Kluber is pitching in rehab games.

5. I know whenever the Yankees get one player back, another goes down, but if everyone were to be healthy at the same time, this could be the lineup in the very near future:

DJ LeMahieu, 2B
Anthony Rizzo, 1B
Aaron Judge, RF
Joey Gallo, CF
Giancarlo Stanton, LF
Luke Voit, DH
Gary Sanchez, C
Gleyber Torres, SS
Gio Urshela, 3B

That’s the best possible Yankees lineup. No Brett Gardner. No Tyler Wade. No Rougned Odor. No Kyle Higashioka. Those four can make up the bench. But some version of those nine names should be the starting lineup.

6. Voit had a big day against the Red Sox with what ended up being the game-winning hit in both games: a two-run single in the day game and a solo home run in the night game. Voit has been much better of late with three home runs, nine RBIs and an .804 OPS since returning on 10 days ago. After the sweep, Voit spoke about his status and potential playing time, and it was a little odd.

“I was Top 10 in MVP and I’ve been a great player for this organization for the last three years,” Voit said after the night game. “I’m not going down. I wanna play. Obviously, I know it’s going to be tough here with Rizzo, but I deserve to play just as much as he does. I led the league in home runs last year and I feel really good again. Obviously, the injury bug is the reason he’s here beause of me, but I hope Booney can do whatever he can to get me consistent at-bats.”

I’m glad Voit acknowledges Rizzo is a Yankee because of his own doing. Voit’s inability to stay healthy (he’s played in 39 games this season) is the reason Rizzo is here. The Yankees had to go out and get a first baseman because they didn’t have one because Voit can’t stay healthy. And even when Voit was “healthy” he wasn’t performing. Now the Yankees have Voit and Rizzo and they both can only play first base.

Rizzo has had the better career, is better at getting on base, is a left-handed hitter who hits both righties and lefties and plays a Gold Glove first. There’s nothing Voit does better than Rizzo, and he should never play over him. But thanks to the designated hitter spot, they can both play. That will just mean the Yankees playing Stanton in the outfield more often, a move that should have been happening frequently all along the last two years.

7. With Cole and Montgomery back and Kluber nearing a return, the Yankees will go from having a rotation featuring Andrew Heaney and an opener day to having seven capable starters for five spots. I fully expecet the Yankees to do the wrong thing and insert Scumbag German back into the rotation, put Nestor Cortes in the bullpen and send Luis Gil down. The Yankees don’t care about fielding the best possible team, they care about roster depth. It’s why Greg Allen is in Triple-A and Jonathan Davis is striking out and grounding out to short in every plate appearances. It’s why Nick Nelson is on the major league roster and Stephen Ridings is back in the minors.

Gil became the first pitcher in the Modern Era (since 1900) to strikeout 18 without allowing an earned run in his first three career starts, and I fully expect the Yankees to send him down once there are five other starting options not named Andrew Heaney.

Even after Gil dominated the Orioles and Royals, the idea he “isn’t ready” and needs more seasoning and grooming in the minors was prevalent. Well, he just pitched 4 2/3 scoreless innings against the Red Sox, a team that has crushed Cole in two of his three starts against them. What more could Gil need to do to prove he belongs?

8. I have written and said a lot of critical things about Aaron Boone over the last three years and nearly five months. They have all been fair. He’s a terrible manager who was undeserving of the position and has been a disaster in the role. But for all the negative things I have said about Boone (again, all accurate and fair), he had his best-managed game of his career in the first game of the doubleheader, outmanaging Alex Cora for the first time ever.

The starting lineup was poorly constructed, but Boone will never get that right. I’m only speaking to his in-game mnagement. He removed Montgomery at the right moment, one out shy of five innings pitched. He correctly went to Albert Abreu to get the last out of the fifth, and was right to go to Jonathan Loaisiga for both the sixth and seventh innings of the seven-inning game. In addition to his successful bullpen management, he used Staton to pinch hit for Odor (Stanton produced an RBI single) and then used Davis as the center fielder, moved Wade from left field to third and Gardner from center field to left field.

For the final inning of the night game, Boone moved every position player except for Higashioka to get the most optimal defensive alignment. It was a crazy idea considering the Yankees trailed by two runs and a walk or bloop and a blast and they would have had to score more runs without some big bats, but it worked out. Boone pushed the right buttons on Tuesday, something he rarely ever does.

9. Boone will never be a great in-game manager. He has been in the managerial role for 524 games and I have seen too much (or too little) to expect him to change suddenly change his ways. The lineup will always be an issue (like batting Gardner second) and the batter-to-batter, stealing-outs strategy will always be a problem. But if Boone is even a little better at his job over the next six weeks and for as long as he’s Yankees manager (which will hopefully only be until their last game in 2021), it will make things so much easier.

Boone is the Yankees’ biggest obstacle to winning a championship. The offense can’t always outhit his mistakes, like it has had to do for going on four seasons. On Tuesday, when the offense only produced five runs in the first game and two runs in the second, normally that wouldn’t be enough to overcome their own manager. However, when he makes the right, most logical decisions, good things happen like they did in the doubleheader, and the Yankees won both games.

10. I’m happy today. Happy, but not content, This team was expected to represent the AL in the World Series, now celebrate a trip to the one-game playoff for the third time in the last four years in which there was a wild-card game (and fourth in time in last six years there was one).

“We’ve got a long way to go,” Boone said after the night game. “We’ve gotta continue it. We’ve gotta keep the foot down on the gas and continue to grind away. It’s going to be a tough road ahead still.”

I’m happy the Yankees aren’t prematurely talking trash, the way Judge loves to do and like he did after the Game 2 in the 2018 ALDS and like he did earlier this season in Houston. Like Boone said, the Yankees have a long way to go, and given their remaining schedule and the Rays’, it’s not going to be easy.

There’s so much work left to do. Winning the division has been and still is the goal. It was a nearly impossibly goal a month ago. Now it’s very possible.

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Another series and another series win for the Yankees. The offense barely showed up in the four games against the Mariners (13 runs in the series), but the Yankees’ pitching was outstanding again, the way it’s been all season.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. On Thursday night, Nestor Cortes used his new-found trickery to pitch five solid innings (5 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, 1 HR), but Chad Green gave up another potential late-inning, go-ahead home run that would have been the icing on the cake for what was the latest lackluster performance from the Yankees when not playing the Orioles.

Thankfully, Joey Gallo hit the exact home run I envisioned the 6-foot-5 on-base machine hitting when the Yankees acquired him: a high flyball, which barely found the short porch for the most Yankee Stadium home run you might ever see (until Rougned Odor’s Saturday home run). The go-ahead, three-run, seventh-inning home run gave the Yankees a win in a game. The Yankees play half of their games in a stadium that’s 314 feet to the right-field foul pole, and yet, it took them 101 games into a 162-game season to add a major-league-caliber left-handed bat.

Even if Michael Kay ruined the moment with his cringe-worthy yelling about how the home run being Gallo’s “signature Yankees moment,” it was still a great moment, and a much-needed moment to provide a much-needed win.

2. On Friday night, the Yankees needed another late-inning comeback to tie the game against the Mariners  before gong on to win in 11 innings. The Yankees were held scoreless through the first seven innings on Friday by Marco Gonzales, who entered the game with a 5.15 ERA over 73 1/3 innings. In a season in which Jorge Lopez, Matt Harvey, Michael Wacha, Jordan Lyles, Martin Perez and countless other barely-in-the-league starters have shut down the Yankees, Gonzales became the latest, throwing  6 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing only thee hits and two walks.

Recently-acquired Diego Castillo entered for the Mariners in the eighth, and while Castillo has been very good in his career, I felt good knowing the Mariners hadn’t gone back to old Joe Smith, who got the last out of seventh, because his sweeping slider has been giving the Yankees trouble for 15 years. After four-plus seasons with the Rays, the Yankees had seen Castillo a lot and even for this anemic Yankees offense, they perform better with someone they’re comfortable with. (I would rather the Yankees face Chris Sale than some call-up making their major league debut, as crazy as that sounds). Gardner pinch hit for Jonathan Davis, who has about as much business being on the 2021 Yankees as Gardner, let alone starting every game against a left-handed starter. Gardner worked an all-important seven-pitch walk to begin the inning. Then DJ LeMahieu walked on six pitches and Anthony Rizzo was hit by a pitch. Down one with the bases loaded, no outs, the Yankee had Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton due up: an ideal situation (at least on paper). Judge hit a line drive which went right at the left fielder, but was deep enough to score Gardner and tie the game. After two walks, a hit by pitch and a rocket line drive against a more-than-shaky Castillo, Stanton  swung at the first pitch and banged into a 6-4-3, inning-ending double play.

In the ninth, both Kyle Higashioka and Gardner failed to get in the winning run from second base. In the 10th, the Mariners scored the go-ahead run, but thankfully, Stanton came through with two outs in the bottom of the inning, this time successfully swinging on the first pitch of his at-bat for the game-tying RBI single.

In the 11th, after Albert Abreu pitched a seemingly improbable scoreless inning, Higashioka failed to get in Torres from second again, but this time Gardner didn’t fail to win the game, driving in Torres to win the game.

3. I have said a lot of critical things about Gardner this season and they are all true. He shouldn’t be on this team. Certainly not over Greg Allen or Estevan Florial based strictly on performance.

Allen has played the way the Yankees still think Gardner does, and likely why he has a lifetime vesting one-year contract. The fact Gardner has been able to maintain his roster spot throughout this dismal season, while Allen and Florial have both gotten sent down to accommodate Gardner’s presence is an embarrassment. The Yankees forced Alex Rodriguez into retirement in early August 2016 following a Hall of Fame career and being the sole reason the organization is currently looking at only a 12-year championship drought and not a 21-year drought. Gardner doesn’t belong on this team. He never did. And ever since he became the elder statesman among position players on the team and the longest-tenured Yankee, the team hasn’t done or won anything. His clubhouse leadership hasn’t brought the Yankees anything other than an outfield logjam, and detrimental roster moves to keep him around. If the Yankees are to reach the playoffs, it’s easy to see Gardner being in the lineup, starting in center field and batting ninth.

His walk-off hit doesn’t change this. It was a nice moment and a big hit in a big spot resulting in a big win. But given enough chances, Gardner will come through every once in a while, like any borderline major leaguer. The problem is his every once in a while is now every once in too long of a while.

4. Saturday was Aug. 7. Aaron Judge hit a first-inning solo home run, and it was the first time the Yankees had scored in the first inning since July 7. A team whose Top 5 hitters have mostly been a combination of LeMahieu, Judge, Stanton, Rizzo, Gallo, Gary Sanchez and Torres for a month failed to score a single run in the first inning of a month’s worth of games.

Judge’s home run didn’t give the Yankees a lead because Andrew Heaney started for the Yankees and was doing Andrew Heaney things: giving up runs and home runs. Heaney allowed two runs in the first (on a two-out, two-run home run) and then another two runs in the second. Heaney was the only Yankees starting pitcher to have a bad weekend, allowing four earned runs over six innings. Yes, he settled down after the second (after he had already allowed four runs), but the way he was praised by the YES broadcast and on social media, you would have thought he had pitched a complete-game shutout. If not for Mitch Haniger falling down late on Saturday and the Mariners inexplicably not throwing home to get LeMahieu, the Yankees lose on Saturday. Heaney wasn’t good, and I don’t expect him to be good.

5. You know who is good? Luis Gil. The Luis Gil who is supposedly “not ready” for the majors has now pitched 11 scoreless innings over two starts to begin his career. Gil was only given a chance because Gerrit Cole and Jordan Montgomery went down with COVID, Scumbag Domingo German hurt his shoulder and Luis Severino and Corey Kluber aren’t ready to return yet. If the Yankees needed only one rotation spot, it would go to Cortes then Heaney then Gil. If not for needing Gil to jump to the majors out of desperation, he would still be wasting pitches in the minors.

In a weekend in which the Yankees started Cortes, Wandy Peralta as an opener, Heaney, and Gil, they went 3-1. And they went 3-1 because of those names, not because of the offense.

The Yankees’ Sunday performance was all too familiar. The team was held to six hits, failed to score any of their 10 baserunner and even against a left-handed starter, the nearly all-right-handed lineup (minus Gallo and Odor) was shut down. On paper, the Yankees’ lineup is awesome. In actuality, it’s far from it. 

Going back to July 22, the Yankees have played 17 games. In two of those games, they scored 23 runs against the Orioles. In the other 15 games, they have scored 45 runs, an average of three runs per game. In nine of those games, they have had both Rizzo and Gallo on the team.

The Yankees have been winning since the second game of their doubleheader against the Mets on July 4 (20-9) and since the All-Star break (15-7) and since the trade deadline (8-2), but it hasn’t had anything to do with their offense. Even in the two games when the offense went off against the Orioles, the pitching staff held the Orioles to four runs in 18 innings. Pitching has carried the Yankees this season and outside of Heaney’s first two innings on Saturday, that was the case this weekend against the Mariners.

Here is the Yankees’ pitching line for the weekend:

38 IP, 39 H, 11 R, 8 ER, 13 BB, 43 K, 3 HR, 1.89 ERA, 1.368 WHIP.

6. The power drought is still a drought. The Yankees don’t make nearly enough contact to be able to string together hits to score runs and their lack of home runs is the reason for their lack of scoring. Here’s the recent power problems for the everyday Yankees:

Kyle Higashioka (he’s now an everyday player with Sanchez out): No home runs since June 22.

DJ LeMahieu: No home runs since June 26
Gio Urshela: One home run since June 28
Brett Gardner: one home run since June 30
Aaron Judge: Two home runs since July 10
Giancarlo Stanton: One home run since July 20
Gary Sanchez: No home runs since July 20
Gleyber Torres: No home runs since July 21
Rougned Odor: One home run since July 25

Even Joey Gallo only has one home run since July 27, nearly two weeks.

7. Welcome back, Luke Voit. Voit was back because Rizzo is now out for about two weeks (at minimum), and so the lineup balance the Yankees created at the trade deadline is down to just Gallo, who has hit .162/.295/.351 in 10 games with the Yankees.

Voit was in the starting lineup on Sunday and hit fifth. In theory it made sense since Voit is a right-handed hitter and the Yankees were facing a left-handed starter (Yusei Kikuchi), and Voit has been great against left-handed pitching as a Yankee. The problem is Voit was awful in the 29 games he played in this season in May, June and July, and on Sunday, he looked like a guy who hasn’t seen major league pitching in a month and has barely seen it in 2021. Voit went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts, and left five runners on. His inability to make contact (in his first two at-bats, and swung at seven pitches, swinging through six of them and fouling off one) cost the Yankees multiple chances to score a run. The Yankees ended up not scoring a run in the game.

8. Stephen Ridings was given a chance because of his dominant minor-league season, but really he was given a chance because of injuries and COVID and Nick Nelson and Brooks Kriske being arguably the two least effective relievers in the history of the Yankees. On Tuesday against the Orioles, in his debut, Ridings struck out the side in a scoreless inning. Three days later, in the bullpen game, he pitched 1 1/3 perfect innings across the second and third in the bullpen games against the Mariners. On Sunday, he struck out the side again in the seventh. His line in three games: 3.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 6 K. At 6-foot-8 and with a triple-digit fastball and that breaking balls, he reminds me of Dellin Betances. So far, his results have been peak Betances.

When Aroldis Chapman is healthy, the “elite” relievers are Chapman, Zack Britton, Chad Green and Jonathan Loaisiga. Those four are the four Boone wants to use in the highest-of-leverage situations. Then it’s Clay Holmes, Lucas Luetge and Joely Rodriguez (who reminds me of 2009 World Series hero Damaso Marte) with that sweeping left-handed delivery. Then it’s Wandy Peralta and Albert Abreu and finally Brody Koerner. I think Ridings is already in the second tier (with Holmes, Luetge and Rodriguez) and I think he’s at the top end of that tier. I love everything about Ridings (so far). His results, his velocity, his demeanor on the mound and the way he carries himself with the media.

9. I need the Yankees to get to 96 wins for my preseason over 95.5 wins wager and because I think 96 wins would win them the AL East and avoid them playing in the one-game playoff. The Yankees are 61-50. They would have to go 35-16 to finish with 96 wins. It’s improbable, but not impossible.

There is a path to 96 wins and the division title, but it includes winning pretty much every series the rest of the season with essentially no margin for error.

The Yankees needed to win three out of four agains the Mariners to keep pace, and they did. Here is how the Yankees can get to 96 wins and possibly a division title:

Royals: 2-1
White Sox: 2-1
Angels: 3-1
Red Sox: 4-2
Twins: 3-1
Braves/Indians/Rangers: 6-2
A’s: 2-2
Orioles: 5-1
Blue Jays: 4-3
Mets: 2-1
Rays: 2-1

Again, not crazy. Also, not likely. That’s a lot of wins and not a lot of losses. That’s what happens when you piss away nearly 100 games, and the first four months of a six-month season.

10. The Yankees’ winning ways can’t stop. Not now, not for the rest of the season. Next up are the Royals a team that’s 17 games back in the AL Central and 15 games out of the second wild card and on pace for 71 wins. The Royals suck. Not Orioles level of suck, but they are a very bad team with very bad pitching and the second-worst offense in the AL. This is a series the Yankees should win and have to win. In the 13-game stretch against the Marlins, Orioles, Mariners and Royals, I thought the Yankees had to go at least 10-3. Well, they’re 8-2. A series win this week in Kansas City gets them to the needed record. With the Rays and Red Sox playing this week, every Yankees win will make up ground on one of them, and every Yankees loss will cause them to lose ground on one of them. Get ready for nearly two more months of playoff games and scoreboard watching.

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The Yankees have won 18 of their last 26 games, are 13-6 since the All-Star break and 6-1 since the trade deadline. They are as close to the top of the AL East as they have been in months and one game back in the loss column for the second wild card. Yes, Yankees baseball is fun again.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The three best things to happen to the 2021 Yankees have all happened in the last week: the trade for Joey Gallo, the trade for Anthony Rizzo and the emergence of Luis Gil. That’s how bad the first four months of the season were outside of Corey Kluber’s no-hitter in Texas, which was now nearly three months ago.

Gallo’s go-ahead, three-run, seventh-inning home run on Thursday night to beat the Mariners was the exact home run I envisioned the 6-foot-5 on-base machine hitting when the Yankees acquired him. Gallo hit the ball a mile into the air and it just kept carrying and carrying before landing in the first few rows of the short porch for the most Yankee Stadium home run you might ever see. The Yankees play half of their games in a stadium that’s 314 feet to the right-field foul pole, and yet, it took them 101 games into a 162-game season to add a major-league-caliber left-handed bat.

They didn’t add just the one major-league-caliber bat, and had they done so, their division dreams would be over and they would be buried for the second wild card. That’s because Rizzo single-handedly carried the Yankees to a sweep in Miami, and without his presence in the lineup, the Yankees get swept. It was Rizzo who played a part in all seven of the Yankees’ runs in the first two games in Miami (scored five and drove in two), reaching base in eight of nine plate appearances. And it was Rizzo who hit the game-tying single in the series finale in Miami to spark the Yankees’ late comeback. If the Yankees only trade for Gallo or only trade for Rizzo, they’re not where they are right now, which is in the best position they have been in since the first pitch of the season on April 1.

With a rotation that’s decimated by injury (Kluber, Luis Severino and now Scumbag Domingo German and Clarke Schmidt in the minors), COVID (Gerrit Cole and Jordan Montgomery) and underperformance (Deivi Garcia in Triple-A), the Yankees were forced to start new addition Andrew Heaney against the Orioles and he took the Yankees’ only loss in the series, allowing four home runs in four innings of work (and they will inexplicably start Heaney again on Saturday against the Mariners). During all of this Nestor Cortes has somehow emerged as arguably the Yankees’ best starter (along with Jameson Taillon, who was atrocious in the first half of the season), and because of the lack of starting pitching, on Friday against the Mariners, the Yankees are going to use Wandy Peralta as an opener. Peralta (and his 5.19 ERA in 22 games as a Yankee) hasn’t pitched since July 8 because of the All-Star break and his time on the COVID list. When he takes the ball on Friday in what is essentially a must-win game, he won’t have pitched in 29 days. Thankfully, Luis Gil (6 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K) was given a chance to showcase his ability on Wednesday, otherwise Nick Nelson or Brooks Kriske might be opening a game this weekend as well.

2. It’s bad enough the Yankees chose to keep Nelson and Kriske on the 40-man roster over Garrett Whitlock (1.21 ERA in 52 innings for Red Sox) and let Whitlock get away, but to know that someone like Stephen Ridings has been in the minors this season while Nelson was allowed to pitch in 10 games and Kriske in seven games is the most irresponsible things the Yankees have done since hiring Aaron Boone. Ridings was amazing in his major league debut, striking out the side in relief on Wednesday night, with a triple-digit fastball and silly breaking ball. At 6-foot-8 (making him the tallest Yankee on a team that has Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Gallo), he’s the exact height as Dellin Betances and has what appears to be the same repertoire as Betances. The Yankees have possibly had Betances 2.0 in the minors all season, and yet they let Nelson appear in double-digit games, including two as the opener, and let Kriske throw 50-footers en route to an extra-inning loss in Boston. I don’t get it.

3. Just like I don’t get why Greg Allen is no longer on the Yankees’ 26-man roster, the same why I didn’t get it when Estevan Florial was removed from it. Do the Yankees really need Jonathan Davis? Are they that worried about making room on the 40-man? I can find at least seven names I would be willing to remove from the 40-man right now, and I could easily part with another five.

Allen is who the Yankees still think Brett Gardner is, but watching the two play, it’s like thinking Tyler Wade is Corey Seager. The fact that Gardner has been able to maintain his roster spot throughout this dismal season, while Allen and Estevan Florial have both gotten sent down to accommodate Gardner’s presence is an embarrassment. The Yankees forced Alex Rodriguez into retirement in early August 2016 following a Hall of Fame career and being the sole reason the organization is currently looking at only a 12-year championship drought and not a 21-year drought. Gardner doesn’t belong on this team. He never did. And ever since he became the elder statesman among position players on the team and the longest-tenured Yankee, the team hasn’t done or won anything. His clubhouse leadership hasn’t brought the Yankees anything other than an outfield logjam, and detrimental roster moves to keep him around. If the Yankees are to reach the playoffs, it’s easy to see Gardner being in the lineup, starting in center field and batting ninth.

4. To reach the playoffs, the Yankees are going to have to keep winning series, and to win the division, they are going to have to continue winning at their current rate and play about .700 baseball for two more months.

Are the Yankees good? They are now 13-6 since the All-Star break and 6-1 since the trade deadline. Or are they just playing bad teams? They have gone 3-4 against the Red Sox, 2-1 against the Rays and 2-0 against the Phillies, but are a much-needed 6-1 against the Marlins, Orioles and Mariners. Whichever it is, it doesn’t matter. The Yankees are winning, and that’s all that matters.

5. I need the Yankees to get to 96 wins for my preseason over 95.5 wins wager and because I think 96 wins would win them the AL East and avoid them playing in the one-game playoff. The Yankees are 59-49 and 10 games above .500 for the first time in 2021. (It only took 108 games.) They would have to go 37-17 to finish with 96 wins. It’s improbable, but not impossible.

There is a path to 96 wins and the division title, but it includes winning pretty much every series the rest of the season with essentially no margin for error.

6. Here is how the Yankees can get there:

Mariners: 2-1
Royals: 2-1
White Sox: 2-1
Angels: 3-1
Red Sox: 4-2
Twins: 3-1
Braves/Indians/Rangers: 6-2
A’s: 2-2
Orioles: 5-1
Blue Jays: 4-3
Mets: 2-1
Rays: 2-1

7. Not crazy. Also, not likely. That’s a lot of wins and not a lot of losses. That’s what happens when you piss away nearly 100 games, and the first four months of a six-month season.

You can swap out wins and losses among the teams however you like, except the remaining games against the Red Sox and Rays. Those have to happen. The Yankees have to go at least 4-2 against the Red Sox and at least 2-1 against the Rays, otherwise this path, which is already obstructed by leaves, debris and litter with several seemingly immovable boulders blocking the way will be become even more unlikely.

8. We’re now seeing the Red Sox team I expected to see in 2021. A team with an awful starting rotation, a shaky bullpen and three, maybe four real hitters. They have lost seven of nine, have fallen out of first place in the AL East and are barely hanging on to a wild-card berth with the Yankees, A’s and Blue Jays rapidly ascending. Given the Red Sox’ remaining schedule, their lack of talent and the tracks of the regression going right through Fenway Park, it’s not hard to see a complete second-half collapse from the Red Sox leaving them where they belong: outside the playoffs.

The Rays are a much harder sell on blowing their division lead. They have the easiest remaining schedule in the AL East and even though their lineup strikes out more than any other in the game, their pitching is too good and too deep to see them experiencing an extend losing streak or a bad two-month run. I want it to happen. I pray it happens. It’s just difficult to envision.

The focus is on the Red Sox and Rays since those are the teams ahead of the Yankees, but anyone who isn’t closely watching the Blue Jays is foolish. The Blue Jays have won eight of 10, have possibly the best rotation in the East with Hyun Jin Ryu, Jose Berrios, Robbie Ray and Alek Manoah and their lineup features George Springer, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, Marcus Semien and Teoscar Hernandez. I’m very, very worried about the Blue Jays.

9. I’m mostly worried about the Yankees though. While, they have been winning, aside from a couple laughers against the 31-games-under-.500 Orioles, the offense is still a mess. Anthony Rizzo single-handedly led the team to a sweep in Miami, and without him, they get swept in Miami, and Anthony Gallo’s three-run Yankee Stadium led the team to a comeback win on Thursday night over the Mariners. (It was the exact home run I have been waiting for Gallo to hit: a ball that carries just enough to barely reach the short porch in right field.) The two trade deadline additions have done their part. The rest of the everyday players, who have been with the team all season, leading the Yankees to a 53-48 record, which forced the team to acquire Rizzo and Gallo? They continue to do close to nothing.

10 That can’t continue. It’s gone on for four months and a week and 108 games. The games against the nothing-to-play-for Orioles and other AL basement dwellers are going to dry up and the non-Rizzo and Gallo Yankees are going to need to hit consistently in a way they haven’t in two years. If they don’t, the nearly improbable path to a division title will be the same path to the wild card.

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The Yankees did it. They finally swept a team. For the first time since June 15-17 and just the fourth time all season the Yankees swept a series of at least three games. They did so because of new addition Anthony Rizzo and some awful Marlins defense.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. Between Friday and Saturday, Anthony Rizzo reached base in eight of nine plate appearances, and of the Yankees’ seven runs in the first two games of the series, he scored five of them and drove in the other two. He single-handedly carried the Yankees to wins in each of his first two games a Yankee. Then on Sunday, he tied the game at 1 in the eighth inning with a single to left field off a left-handed reliever. Of the Yankees’ 10 runs over the weekend, Rizzo scored five of them and drove in three.

As a left-handed, contact-first bat with power and four Gold Gloves to his name, Rizzo is a perfect fit for this team and future teams. Yes, I’m probably getting ahead of myself after three games, but the Yankees don’t have a real, consistent first-base option now (since Luke Voit never plays) or in the future, unless you want them to move DJ LeMahieu to first, Gleyber Torres to second and then sign one of Trevor Story, Corey Seager or Carlos Correa. Rizzo turned down a five-year, $70 million extension from the Cubs back in the spring, so it’s going to take more than that to keep him, but as of right now (after the enormous sample size of three games and 13 plate appearances), I’m all for it.

2. I understand the plate discipline and power of Joey Gallo as an offensive player, and I’m sure he will take full advantage of the short porch at Yankee Stadium, but what worried me about adding him to the Yankees’ lineup was that he was essentially the left-handed version of Giancarlo Stanton with even more strikeouts. Yes, he makes the Yankees better overall (as a left-handed hitter who can play Gold Glove defense and multiple positions), though had the Yankees only traded for Gallo and not also Rizzo, they most likely get swept by the last-place Marlins.

This weekend was a reminder that the Yankees still have a long way to go to changing their identity. Aside from Rizzo, the Yankees’ offense was non-existent and if not for the Marlins eighth- and ninth-inning defense on Sunday, the Yankees would have wasted another opportunity to sweep a series. Here’s how the everyday, non-Rizzo Yankees performed over the weekend.

Gleyber Torres: 1-for-13, 4 K
Joey Gallo: 1-for-12, 2 BB, 5 K
Gary Sanchez: 1-for-12, 2B, 3 K
Aaron Judge: 3-for-12, 5 K

3. Stanton only played in two of the three games because I guess playing both sides of the baseball two days in a row for the first time in years equated to a day off. LeMahieu and Gio Urshela were held out of the starting lineup in all three games by Aaron Boone, but Urshela ended up playing on both Friday and Saturday and LeMahieu on Friday and Sunday, so just some unnecessary rest for two everyday players at a time when the Yankees can’t be giving anyone unnecessary rest. If you trade for Gallo and Rizzo and then end up not playing LeMahieu and Urshela and play Brett Gardner and Tyler Wade, it’s as if you didn’t trade for anyone.

4. Rizzo was the only Yankee to homer in the series (doing so on both Friday and Saturday), and power has become a problem for the Yankees over the last few weeks. Here are the non-Rizzo expected regulars and their recent power struggles:

LeMahieu: No home runs since June 26
Urshela: No home runs since July 4
Judge: No home runs since July 10
Gallo: One home run since July 10
Sanchez: No home runs since July 20
Stanton: No home runs since July 20
Torres: No home runs since July 21

I guess that means they are due to get hot on this upcoming homestand against the Orioles (3) and Mariners (4).

5. While the Yankees won all three games, they won all three despite only scoring 10 runs as the pitching was able to stifle an anemic offense, one of only three worse than the Yankees in 2021. (The Yankees have the second-worst in the AL and the fourth-worst in the majors.) The trio of Jameson Taillon, Scumbag Doming German and Jordan Montgomery combined for this line: 14.2 IP, 10 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 5 BB, 15 K, 1.84 ERA, 1.022 WHIP.

The only good thing about NL rules in which the pitcher hits is that it forced Boone to take out his starter earlier than he would have if there had been a DH in the games. Not only did Boone pull his starter at the right time in all three games, but he also managed to pull off a few double switches, something I thought he certainly would screw up.

6. On Sunday, the Yankees announced Scumbag German was placed on the injured list with shoulder inflammation. Either this is the Yankees giving him a rest after trading for Andrew Heaney, or German is actually injured as a result of Boone greatly exceeding his expected pitch count in Boston as Boone put an individual achievement and the possibility of a far-fetched no-hitter over a team win in a critical game against the Red Sox. Either way, no German for a couple weeks (and that’s not a bad thing).

I don’t have much from an expectation standpoint for Heaney. He’s average at best and if there’s one aspect of the game the Yankees have no idea what they’re doing it’s starting pitching: developing, evaluating and trading for. Maybe Heaney will be different, but the track record for starting pitchers Brian Cashman has traded for is abysmal.

For Heaney, there’s no better setup than facing the Orioles in your first start and he couldn’t have asked for a softer landing spot to join the rotation. If he does well, and holds his rotation spot for the next 10 days, he will be in line to start the Field of Dreams game next Thursday in Iowa against the White Sox.

7. Entering the weekend, the Yankees needed to go 43-18 to get to 96 wins and win the division (and win me my preseason over 95.5 wins bet). The 3-0 weekend against the Marlins drastically improved a pace that’s still improbable, but not impossible.

Mariners/Royals: 5-2
Orioles: 7-2
White Sox: 2-1
Angels/A’s: 2-2
Red Sox: 4-2
Twins/Braves/Rangers: 7-2
Blue Jays: 4-3
Mets: 2-1
Indians: 2-1
Rays: 2-1

8. This weekend was so critical to the Yankees’ playoff chances because while they were playing the lowly, last-place Marlins, the Rays and Red Sox were playing each other, giving the Yankees a chance to make up ground on someone with every win. They won all three games, while the Red Sox lost all three games, so in the span of 48 hours, the Yankees’ loss-column deficit to the Red Sox went from 7 to 4. If Chad Green doesn’t blow a two-run, ninth-inning lead at Fenway two weeks ago or Jonathan Loaisiga doesn’t blow a four-run, eighth-inning lead at Fenway two weeks ago, the Yankees and Red Sox are tied in the loss column. Better yet, if the Yankees hadn’t played the Red Sox in 2021, they would be 53-38 and the Red Sox would be 53-41. But the Red Sox have taken care of business against the Yankees this season going 10-3, and creating the separation in the standings in head-to-head games alone.

9. Now the Rays are in first place. A much better team than the Red Sox with a much easier schedule than the Red Sox over the remaining two months. The Rays will play the Orioles 10 times in July, still have six games against the Twins and three against both the Mariners and Marlins. The most important part of both the Rays’ and Red Sox’ schedule for the Yankees is that the two teams they are chasing have 10 games left against each other. That’s 10 days when the Yankees will make up ground with a win or lose ground with a loss. Ten immensely important days to the Yankees’ playoff chances.

10. Fangraphs currently gives the Yankees a 53.3 percent chance of reaching the playoffs (12.1 percent at winning the division and 41.2 percent at winning a wild-card berth). The next 10 days will give the Yankees the opportunity to drastically increase those odds. Over the next 10 days, the Yankees will play the last-place Orioles (37-67), a Mariners (56-50) team that has lost four five since an unexpected trade caused clubhouse turmoil and the fourth-place Royals (45-59) that the Blue Jays just swept over the weekend. The next 10 days will determine how the Yankees’ season goes over the remaining two months.

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The Yankees took two out of three in Tampa, which was good, but more importantly, the Yankees made a pair of impact trades prior to the trade deadline for the first time in three years.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. Yes, I would have signed up for the Yankees winning two out of three at the Trop this week. That’s exactly what I projected they need to do in the three-game in my rest-of-the-season pacing to get them to 96 wins, to win the division and to win me my preseason wager on over 95.5. Here is an updated look at that pacing:

Marlins: 2-1
Orioles: 7-2
Mariners: 3-1
Royals: 2-1
Angels: 3-1
Red Sox: 4-2
Blue Jays: 5-2
Twins: 3-1
A’s: 2-2
Mets: 2-1
White Sox: 2-1
Braves: 1-1
Indians: 2-1
Rangers: 2-1

2. But when you win the first two games of a series and have Gerrit Cole pitching in the third game, that’s a game you have to win. Instead, the Yankees fell to 3-10 when they have a chance to sweep a series (4-10 if you count their two-game sweep over the Phillies), and they fell to 10-11 in games started by Cole. That’s awful.

3. I should have known better thinking the Yankees would complete the sweep of the Rays and cut their loss-column deficit to the Rays to four games and their loss-column deficit to the Red Sox to six games. A Cole start combined with a chance to go for a sweep combined with a weekday afternoon game couldn’t have made it more predictable the Yankees would lose the game.

4. Not only did they lose, but they were embarrassed. Cole allowed a first-pitch home run that was overturned to be a foul ball, though that was a precursor of things to come. Four batters into the game, the Rays had a 4-0 lead and hadn’t made an out in what was another shit start by Cole against the Rays and Red Sox this season.

5. Here is Cole’s line against the Rays this season:
24.2 IP, 20 H, 16 R, 14 ER, 4 BB, 39 K, 2 HR, 5.11 ERA, WHIP

Here is his line against the Red Sox this season:
16 IP, 19 H, 10 R, 9 ER, 6 BB, 25 K, 4 HR, 5.06 ERA, WHIP

It’s nice that Cole pitched a complete game shutout against the Astros a few weeks ago, and it’s nice that he has dominated the Orioles, Tigers and Indians this season. At some point he needs to beat the Rays and Red Sox with some consistency, considering they are the two teams separating the Yankees from being buried in the standings and holding a playoff spot.

4. The idea Kyle Higashioka should catch Cole was always a joke, but it’s more comical than ever given the performance of the duo on Thursday, or against the Red Sox a month ago, or against the Mets or Rangers. Higashioka should almost never play, and when he does “need” to play, it shouldn’t have to come when Cole is pitching. There’s absolutely nothing special between the two.

6. Thursday’s game should be the last time Brett Gardner plays in a game as a Yankee. He can’t hit, he can’t get on base, when he’s on base he can’t steal and his defense has looked like Miguel Andujar’s at times this season, including Thursday. The Yankees gave Gardner one one-year deal too many, and now he’s wasting a roster spot because the Yankees don’t seem to want to give him the Alex Rodriguez treatment and force Gardner into a midseason retirement the way they did to A-Rod back in 2016.

The same goes for Rougned Odor and Tyler. No more Higashioka. No more Gardner. No more Odor. No more Wade. No more throwing away games after the Yankees threw away too many of their first 101 games. They shouldn’t play any of those names again and they don’t need to after trading for Joey Gallo and Anthony Rizzo.

7. It’s odd and frustrating the Yankees stood pat at the 2019 trade deadline when they were arguably the best team in baseball and on their way to a rather easy division title or in 2020 when eight teams were going to the playoffs, and they were in a better spot than they were as of Wednesday afternoon (before the first trade for Gallo). The Yankees don’t currently hold a postseason spot and have loss-columns deficit of two to the A’s, six to the Rays and seven to the Red Sox in order to acquire a playoff spot. Right now, the Yankees’ seemingly only realistic chance at reaching the playoffs is as the second wild card, and what do they get out of that? They would have to go on the road and use Cole, and even if they win, they are now going on the road for the first two games of the ALDS, unable to use Cole until Game 3 at the earliest.

8. Trading for Gallo and Rizzo is Yankees front office admitting they were wrong to think they could win with an all-right-handed lineup. It’s also an admission that a collection of Aaron Hicks, Gardner and Odor was never going to be good enough to get the Yankees anywhere, certainly not the World Series. It’s unfortunate it took the Yankees several years and 101 games of this season to give in to their stubbornness to not have lineup balance. Now the team needs to go and win at a near .700 pace in order to get where they are expected to be.

9. This needs to be the Yankees’ lineup:

DJ LeMahieu, 2B
Aaron Judge, RF
Joey Gallo, LF
Giancarlo Stanton, DH
Anthony Rizzo, 1B
Gary Sanchez, C/Gleyber Torres, SS
Gleyber Torres, SS/Gary Sanchez, C
Gio Urshela, 3B
Greg Allen, CF

Or if the Yankees stop lying and do actually play Stanton in the outfield, this:

DJ LeMahieu, 2B
Aaron Judge, RF/CF
Joey Gallo, CF/RF
Giancarlo Stanton, LF
Anthony Rizzo, 1B
Luke Voit, DH
Gary Sanchez, C/Gleyber Torres, SS
Gleyber Torres, SS/Gary Sanchez, C
Gio Urshela, 3B

Those are both lineups I can get behind. Those are lineups that can produce. Those are lineups, that if the starting pitching is just average, the bullpen doesn’t continue to ruin games and if Aaron Boone only makes logical decisions (the hardest of all of these things to happen), the Yankees can go on the kind of 43-18 run that’s needed for them to win the division.

10. The Yankees’ next 13 games are against the Marlins (3), Orioles (3), Mariners (4) and Royals (3). Meanwhile, the Rays and Red Sox play each other this weekend and still have to play each other 13 times. The math is horrible and essentially labels the Yankees’ chances at winning the division as a miracle. But if the front office can admit they were wrong with their roster construction like they did with the two trades then anything is possible, including the Yankees winning 43 of their remaining 61 games.

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