The Yankees have won seven of nine and three straight series. They have cut their deficit in the AL East to three games in the loss column and have a chance to possibly erase that deficit completely with a back weekend in Boston.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. I was told many times the 2016-17 version of Gary Sanchez no longer existed. That a lot of players come up and take the league by storm only to fade away and become nothing more than an average or replacement level player. That Sanchez would never return to being the player who was the face of the Yankees for the last half of 2016 and 3-hitter in 2017 and who represented their greatest lineup advantage.

I have taken a lot of criticism over the last couple years, (even from within my home) about my unwavering support for Sanchez. I defended him against the Austin Romine Fan Club and the Kyle Higashioka Fan Club. I stood by him when he .186 in 2018 and .147 in the shortened 2020 season. When he was wrongly benched by the idiot and loser that is Aaron Boone in the postseason, I was told it was the right move. When the Yankees tendered Sanchez a contract (as if there was ever any other choice), I was told it was foolish and they would regret it. Now all I can do is laugh at everyone who told me Sanchez would never be the player he once was, not even for a week.

2. Two weeks ago I wrote this:

In a perfect world, if every Yankees hitter was hitting to the best of their abilities of their career and healthy and able to play the field, this would be the optimal Yankees lineup:

1. DJ LeMahieu, 2B
2. Aaron Judge, RF
3. Giancarlo Stanton, LF
4. Gary Sanchez, C
5. Luke Voit, 1B
6. Gleyber Torres, SS
7. Miguel Andujar, DH
8. Gio Urshela, 3B
9. Aaron Hicks, CF

Over the last nearly month (since May 27), Sanchez is hitting .338/.410/.743 with six doubles, eight home runs and 18 RBIs in 83 plate appearances. Since returning to his former home in the 3-hole, he’s 6-for-15 with two doubles, three home runs and seven RBIs. In the four games he has batted third, the Yankees are 4-0, and Sanchez is single-handedly responsible for two of the wins (June 20 against Oakland and June 23 against Kansas City), and he was arguably the most important player in the other two games as well (June 19 against Oakland and June 24 against Kansas City). He’s once again the Yankees’ biggest lineup advantage since no catcher can do or is doing what he does at the plate.

I have long been mocked for being the self-proclaimed President of the Gary Sanchez Fan Club, telling the mockers that I believe the Sanchez of 2016-17 is still in there and still exists. That version of Sanchez not only exists, but is here.

3. Either Boone is so adamant about not wanting to play Sanchez with Gerrit Cole that he was willing to let Sanchez catch a day game after a night game this week, or Cole is so adamant about not wanting to throw to Sanchez. I’m beginning to think it’s the latter, and that’s a horrible look for Cole, who is clearly not who I thought he was if he needs a personal catcher as a security blanket, and it’s a bad look for the the Yankees, who will continue to play an inferior lineup when Cole starts.

It’s also because Giancarlo Stanton can’t play the field. I’m not sure who is to blame here. Is Stanton saying he doesn’t feel comfortable in the outfield or is it the Yankees not wanting him to risk injury? In case you haven’t noticed, Stanton does a fine job getting injured when only serving as the designated hitter, so it’s not like that role has kept him healthy and in the lineup DH and not have Sanchez’s bat in the lineup when Cole pitches because Cole can’t handle throwing to someone he didn’t grow up with in California. Stanton needs to play the outfield. If he gets hurt doing so, so be it.

4. After Boone managed his bullpen and his team to a blown lead and loss in the first game of the series against the Royals, he did his best to do it again in the second game of the series. With runners on first and third and two outs in the ninth and Carlos Santana up, Boone went out to the mound to hold a conference on how to pitch to Santana. Aroldis Chapman, Sanchez, Boone and the infield were in agreement on how to handle Santana and Boone returned to the dugout. Right before Chapman could throw the first pitch to Santana, Sanchez called time and stood up. I figured they were going to go through the signs again. Instead, Boone had signaled to Sanchez to intentionally walk Santana and bring up Sebastian Rivero, who was still looking for his first major league hit.

The move would force the bases loaded, and with Chapman being extra wild lately (coinciding with the crackdown on foreign substances for pitchers), there would be no margin for error. And Chapman needed that margin for error, as he walked Rivero on four pitches with the fourth pitch nearly headed for the backstop. Chapman blew the Yankees’ one-run lead and when he left the mound the Royals had the lead. Boone had betrayed his closer and catcher and his team and had gone against what they had agreed to.

5. “He wanted to pitch to Santana,” Boone said after the game. “In hindsight, and not just because it didn’t work out, I think the right move was probably to go ahead and let [Chapman] pitch to him. I just didn’t want to let [Santana] beat us in that spot or get too careful pitching around, leading to a wild pitch or something.”

How is this guy still managing the Yankees? I will say it again: Boone is the Yankees’ biggest obstacle to a championship. Not the Rays or Red Sox or Blue Jays or Astros or A’s or White Sox or the National League winner. The Yankees’ own manager is what stands in the way of their success. The Yankees’ offense is the only thing that can combat Boone because they have the ability to outscore his idiotic decisions. And they had to on Wednesday night, as Sanchez and Luke Voit won the game for the Yankees and erased all of the bad Boone had done. There’s no doubt Boone thinks his moved was the right because the Yankees came back and won, like a fool at a Blackjack table who stays with a 16 against a 7 and miraculously wins the hand.

6. “When I got back to the bench and just kind of looked out there, that’s why there was a little bit of a pause,” Boone said of his mound visit with Santan due up. “I just felt like I wanted to take our shot the other way. It was my call in the moment, and I think that led to some of the frustration. But Chappy and I absolutely talked about it, and we’re good.”

I doubt “they’re good” the way Boone says they are. Back in February, he said the clubhouse would be fine with the return of Scumbag Domingo German and within a day Zack Britton had openly said it wasn’t fine. Last October, he said he talked with Sanchez about the decision to go with Higashioka in the postseason, and then in the offseason, Sanchez said he was never told. No one should believe anything Boone ever says. So when he says he and a player have a good line of communication or have worked through whatever issue there is, don’t believe him. The simple fact he has to address means they’re not good.

7. “We’re playing for a lot. These guys care,” Boone said of his decision to go against his closer. “Sometimes you’re going to get upset. That’s part of playing the high-stakes game of Major League Baseball.”

No one is saying the Yankees don’t care. Michael Kay thinks every night he needs to ask the question, “You think these guys don’t care?” Who is saying they don’t care? Being bad and underachieving and losing like they have done for the majority of the season doesn’t mean they don’t care. But the Yankees players certainly don’t need their lead play-by-play man and manager to petition for them that they care.

8. I’m sure Michael King cares. He just isn’t any good. The Yankees are now 2-3 in games he has pitched since he became a starter or opener or whatever you want to call him. In only one of those five games did he not allow first-inning runs. This is after he was incapable of being a starter/opener last season and the Yankees’ decision to stick with him throughout the shortended season nearly cost them a postseason berth. King needs to be removed from the rotation. He can’t possibly be the team’s “best” option. I know he isn’t the best option as long as Deivi Garcia is in the organization, regardless of what he’s doing in Triple-A.

9. Having King and Jameson Taillon back-to-back in the rotation opens the door for losing streaks to start or be extended. King isn’t good and doesn’t give the team length, and the same goes for Taillon. And I say this coming off King’s best start of the season and Taillon’s as well. I’m not foolish enough to think one OK King start and one good Taillon start is enough to think one or both of them are now going to be trustworthy starting options. Thankfully, neither of them will pitch this weekend in Boston (since the Yankees will have enough problems with a lefty starting at Fenway in Jordan Montgomery and Scumbag German who gives up home runs at an unbelievable rate), but they will both pitch next week against the Angels and Mets. For now, it seems like the Yankees are fine with continuing to use both of them as starters and fine with leaving them pitching on consecutive days in the rotation, considering they have had the chance to pull them from the rotation and break them up within it and they haven’t done either.

10. This a very, very, very important weekend. At the end of play on Sunday night, the Yankees will either be tied in the loss column with the Red Sox, trailing by two games, trailing by four games or trailing by six games. Each game is incredibly important and could be the eventual difference between an ALDS spot and a wild-card spot or a wild-card spot and no postseason. Three weekends ago when the two teams met, the Yankees blew late leads in two of the three games (King lost them the other game within the first five batters). That can’t happen again.

This is the most important series of the season to date. We’ll have a good idea of who the 2021 Yankees are after it.

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That’s more like it. A sweep of the Blue Jays (who had been 6-3 against the Yankees in 2021), the return of the offense and three games of ground made up in the division over the last three days. It’s been a wonderful few days to be a Yankees fan, even if it’s been a mostly miserable two-plus months to be one this season.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The Yankees were fortunate to win one of the three games in Buffalo, let alone all three. In the series opener, Jordan Montgomery put them in a first-inning hole and they trailed by three runs entering the sixth. In the second game, Kyle Higashioka started over Gary Sanchez because Gerrit Cole started and because Aaron Boone is an idiot, and the Yankees needed Sanchez to save them with a two-run, pinch-hit home run in the seventh, and then needed Aroldis Chapman to escape a second-and-third, no-out jam in the ninth. In the series finale, Michael King was his usual awful self and needed a triple play as a result of horrible Blue Jays baserunning to escape the first inning, and the Yankees needed another seventh-inning comeback after Boone let Lucas Luetge give away the lead rather than giving Chad Green a clean inning to work with.

2. It was yet another forgettable series for Boone, who made idiotic lineup decisions, like continuing to pair Higashioka with Cole, and disastrous bullpen decisions, like allowing King and Luetge to start innings they should have already been pulled for. I have said it for years and I’ll say it again: the Yankees’ biggest obstacle to ending their championship drought is Boone. It’s not the Rays or Blue Jays or Red Sox or White Sox or A’s or Astros or Dodgers or any team, it’s their own manager. The Yankees’ offense has to overcome their own manager’s decision making, and because the offense has been so bad this season (worst in the American League before Thursday’s game), the Yankees are where they are at only four games over .500 through 68 games.

3. In the second game of the series, the Yankees loaded the bases with no outs in the first inning for Giancarlo Stanton. I went to read Goodnight Moon and I returned to Marcus Semien stepping on home plate after hitting a home run. I was confused, but then quickly realized the Yankees had once again failed to score more than one run with the bases loaded and no outs. I was happy they even scored the one run. But it took two pitches for Semien to tie the game against Cole, who continues to have serious issues with giving up home runs (two more on Wednesday).

The Yankees’ 17 runs in the three-game series (5.7 per game) were a welcome sight. (They now have a one-run lead on the Tigers to avoid being the worst offense in the American League.) But their inability to get runners in from scoring position with no outs is a major concern, and the reason their offense as a whole has been so bad, and the reason they are facing an extremely difficult uphill battle the rest of the season for a postseason spot.

4. King can’t continue to start or open. He really can’t. In his latest poor outing, he put seven baserunners on in 4 1/3 innings and if not for the most ridiculous and unexpected triple play, the game might have been over in the first inning with runners on second and third and the Blue Jays’ 3-4-5 hitters coming up. King started a game the Yankees won, but it had absolutely nothing to do with him as he allowed three earned runs and only recorded 13 outs.

Unless the Yankees’ offense returns to normalcy, it’s going to be hard for them to ever have an extended winning streak with both King and Jameson Taillon in the rotation. Not only are they both in the rotation, but they are lined up to start consecutively. The Yankees have enough trouble winning games started by Gerrit Cole, having both King and Taillon starting 40 percent of the games is a problem.

5. I don’t want to hear that Deivi Garcia hasn’t been good lately in Triple-A. King hasn’t been good … ever. If Garcia had started the season in the Yankees’ bullpen like King did before being inexplicably inserted into the rotation, then Garcia never pitches in Triple-A this season and then that can’t be used as an excuse for why he’s not starting the games started by King. King isn’t a starter. At least not a good one. He’s not an opener. Again, at least not a good one. Call up someone who can actually start, and who has had success starting games in the majors.

6. Boone is at the point where not playing Sanchez just because Cole is starting is going to cause him a lot of issues with the media. Cole’s next start is on Tuesday against the Royals, following a day off on Monday. If Higashioka is the starting catcher for that Tuesday game, Boone is going to have to answer for it, and he’s going to have to give an answer that makes sense. Unfortunately, there isn’t one.

Sanchez is up to 10 home runs on the season (third on the Yankees behind Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton) and has a .785 OPS. In 63 plate appearances since May 27, Sanchez is hitting .333/.397/.667 with four doubles, five home runs and 11 RBIs.

In 65 plate appearances since April 28, Higashioka is hitting .136/.215/.220 with two doubles, one home run and three RBIs.

7. Offense can’t be used as a reason by Boone. And on Wednesday, after Boone went to Sanchez over Higashioka in the seventh to win the game for the Yankees, Sanchez had to catch Cole in the seventh and eighth innings for the first time since Opening Day. How did it go?

Joe Panik: groundout on four pitches.
Lourdes Gurriel Jr.: Flyout on two pitches.
Cavan Biggio (who had hit a solo home run of Cole earlier in the game with Higashioka catching): Strikeout on six pitches.
Rowdy Tellez: Groundout on three pitches.
Marcus Semien: Groundout on six pitches.
Bo Bichette: Groundout on four pitches.

Six up, six down on 25 pitches, 19 of which were strikes to preserve a one-run lead.

As I have written and said all along, no catcher makes Cole great, he’s great all on his own. And because of that, unless he starts a day game after a night game that Sanchez had caught, it’s time to give up on the idea that Higashioka deserves any bit of credit for his success.

8. The Yankees recently designated Mike Ford for assignment. This led to the Yankees trading Ford to the Rays for cash considerations and a player to be named later. There’s a 100 percent chance this move will backfire on the Yankees.

I liked Ford. He was an easy guy to root for, had strong left-handed power and great plate discipline. He hadn’t been put in the best of situations this season and last with the Yankees’ poor roster construction and management, but he was someone I felt confident with at the plate becuase I knew he would put together a competitive at-bat. I can’t say the same for Rougned Odor, who is somehow still a Yankee, and will undoubtedly bat in the top half of the order and play every day if Gleyber Torres needs to miss time following Thursday’s injury.

The Rays have no money, so the idea that they were willing to give money to the Yankees to acquire Ford should tell you everything you need to know about this deal. If the Rays want one of your players, you know you’re missing something. The Rays rarely ever screw up in player evaluation and it won’t surprise me to see Ford batting fourth, fifth or sixth for them in the coming weeks and helping them win the AL East, while beating the Yankees in the process. I don’t want the Rays to do well, but I want Ford to do well. Here’s to missing his in-between-pitch routine and that sweet left-handed swing.

9. The eight-game road trip is over and the Yankees went an underwhelming 5-3. Now it’s home for six games, starting on Friday night against the A’s with a capacity crowd allowed at the Stadium for the first time since the Yankees won Game 5 of the 2019 ALCS.

James Kaprielian starts for the A’s in the series opener against Taillon. The matchup couldn’t be a better way to sum up Brian Cashman’s inability to trade for and away starting pitching in his tenure as general manager. The Yankees picked Kaprielian in the first round of the 2015 draft and traded him to Oakland in 2017 to acquire Sonny Gray. The Yankees traded Kaprielian, Dustin Fowler and Jorge Mateo for Gray. They ended up trading Gray after 2018 to the Reds for Shed Long. They then traded Long to the Mariners for Josh Stowers. Stowers was traded to the Rangers for Odor. The Yankees used Kaprielian (2.51 ERA and 35 strikeouts in 32 1/3 innings for first the first-place A’s) to acquire Gray (3.14 ERA and 1.148 WHIP in 52 starts for the Reds) and all they have to show for it is the .195/.267/.376-hitting Odor who the Rangers are paying $27 million to not play for them.

10. The A’s are good. Very, very good. They started the season 1-7 and have gone 42-20 since. They come to the Bronx riding a six-game winning streak and have won eight of nine. If it were October, I might not be scared of the Yankees playing the A’s, but right now, when the Yankees need wins and a lot of them more than ever, the A’s are a horrible matchup for the Yankees.

It was nice to see the Yankees’ offense go off in Buffalo, where every offense goes off, but this weekend against the A’s, a true contender, will be a great litmus test for the Yankees to see if the last three days against the Blue Jays were an anomaly or if the Yankees have finally turned the corner Boone has been searching for since April 1.

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After winning the first two games of the series against the Twins, the Yankees gave away the series finale, something they do far too often. The Yankees have now lost 11 of their last 16 games, are six games back in the division and 2 1/2 games back in the wild card.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. If you were feeling good about the Yankees after Tuesday’s win and Wednesday’s win, well, Thursday was a reminder of just how far this team has go to truly be considered a postseason team, let alone a championship team.

Sure, a nine-run outburst followed by an eight-run burst from the second-worst offense in the American League was nice to see, but it did come against the Twins, a team that has nothing to play for with 100 games left in their season. The blown three-run lead on Thursday erased any sense the Yankees might be turning their season around, as they let a chance to sweep a last-place team slip away and are now just 2-7 in series finales with a chance to sweep.

2. Thursday was a game the Yankees couldn’t afford to give away. They had a three-run lead four batters into the game and eventually lost. It had the same feel to it as the fourth game of the Indians series (April 25), the third game of the Astros series (May 6) and the third game of the most recent Orioles series (May 16).

When you can’t beat the Rays (5-8), Blue Jays (3-6) or Red Sox (0-3), and when you get swept by the Tigers, and somewhat struggle against the Orioles, you can’t only win series against a team as bad as the Twins. Winning two of three this week isn’t a positive, only sweeping the series would have been a positive.

3. The Yankees were off on Monday. They are off on Friday. They are off on Monday again. They only have two games this weekend against the Phillies, which will obviously include NL rules. That means there won’t be any Giancarlo Stanton this weekend unless it’s as a pinch hitter. The Yankees have a DH-only player on their roster, and he’s under contract for six more seasons after this one.

4. Stanton is finally hitting and is extremely hot right now. (Yes, hot and cold exist, regardless of what Aaron Boone and the Yankees believe.) He just hit three home runs and a double in 10 at-bats between Wednesday and Thursday for his first home run since May 6 and his first double since May 11.

Stanton is possibly the streakiest hitter I have ever seen (sorry, Brett Gardner), and when’s on a hot streak, you just hope it doesn’t end. Now the Yankees are going to end it themselves.

5. Here is an update on how Giancarlo Stanton’s days have gone since coming off the injured list on May 28:

May 28: 0-for-5, 4 K
May 29: Personal day off
May 30: 0-for-3, 2 BB, 2 K
May 31: 0-for-4, 2 K
June 1: Personal day off (0-for-1 as pinch hitter)
June 2: 1-for-3, BB, K
June 3: Personal day off
June 4: 1-for-3, BB
June 5: 0-for-4, 2 K
June 6: Personal day off (0-for-1 with a strikeout as a pinch hitter

June 7: Day off
June 8: 2-for-5
June 9: 3-for-5, 2B, 2 HR, 5 RBIs
June 10: 1-for-5, HR, RBI
June 11: Day off

Now it’s probably going to include:

June 12: Personal day off
June 13: Personal day off
June 14: Day off

6. Can we stop with Michael King starting or opening games? Please. He isn’t good in that role.

Last season, King pitched mostly as an opener for the Yankees and had a 7.76 ERA and 5.14 FIP. The last three times through the rotation (since May 30), he has been given a chance to start or open or whatever you want to call it. I call it pitching poorly: 11. 1 IP, 13 H, 10 R, 8 ER, 5 BB, 10 K, 1 HR, 6.35 ERA, 1.589 WHIP. The Yankees have lost all three games he has started.

Enough is enough. The Yankees can’t afford to keep losing games. Not when they have already lost 30 of 63. Not when the Rays seemingly never lose and not when the Yankees can’t beat the Blue Jays (3-6) or Red Sox (0-3). King’s spot in the rotation should go to Deivi Garcia. I don’t know why that’s so hard to understand and implement.

7. There’s never a good time for a closer to blow a game, but Aroldis Chapman couldn’t have picked a worse time to have the worst outing of his career. Single, home run, single, home run. Four runs without recording an out to first give up a two-run lead and then to give up the game ruined the Yankees’ chances at sweeping the awful Twins.

A rare bad night for Chapman is why the Yankees are in a bad spot in terms of the standings. There are going to be bad nights for Chapman. Even Gerrit Cole has had a few clunkers. The Yankees’ margin for error entering the season was slim with two other truly competitive teams in the division in Tampa Bay and Toronto, and now that Boston is still playing well, the margin error is that much slimmer. The Yankees can’t keep pissing away games to bad teams.

8. Miguel Andujar is hitting .313./.326/.506 over his last 86 plate appearances. The high average, the low on-base percentage and the power (five home runs in June) are all there. It’s the same Andujar who would have won the 2018 AL Rookie of the Year if not for someone being able to be both a starting pitching and middle-of-the-order bat in his same rookie class.

Andujar has hit his way into an everyday role. With the Yankees’ offense as being as anemic as it has been through 63 games, Andujar and his .832 OPS since May 14 have to be in the lineup. No, he doesn’t walk (two walks in 99 plate appearances this season). No, he isn’t very good at defense at any position. But what he can do is make contact, put the ball in play and rack up extra-base hits. That’s more than nearly every other Yankees hitter can do.

9. The optimal Yankees lineup right now is this:

In a perfect world, if every Yankees hitter was hitting to the best of their abilities of their career and healthy and able to play the field, this would be the optimal Yankees lineup:

1. DJ LeMahieu, 2B
2. Aaron Judge, RF
3. Giancarlo Stanton, LF
4. Gary Sanchez, C
5. Luke Voit, 1B
6. Gleyber Torres, SS
7. Miguel Andujar, DH
8. Gio Urshela, 3B
9. Aaron Hicks, CF

Instead, this is currently the optimal Yankees lineup:

1. DJ LeMahieu, 2B
2. Aaron Judge, CF
3. Gleyber Torres, SS
4. Giancarlo Stanton, DH
5. Gio Urshela, 3B
6. Miguel Andujar, LF
7. Gary Sanchez, C
8. Clint Frazier, RF
9. Chris Gittens, 1B

10. At the end of Joe Girardi’s tenure as Yankees manager, I thought it was time for a new manager. I just didn’t think it would be someone as incapable and inexperienced as Boone. If I knew the Yankees were going to hire Boone and knew how inept he would be at the position I never would have wanted Girardi to be replaced. It’s going to somewhat sad seeing Girardi in a Phillies uniform managing against the Yankees this weekend, while we watch Boone stumble his way through the intricacies of the NL rules and then stumble his way through his postgame press conferences. Maybe when the Yankees replace Boone they will hire someone worthy of the position.

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The Yankees have lost four straight and 10 of 13. They are in fourth place in the AL East, 2 1/2 games out of a wild-card spot, have the second-worst offense in the AL and just got swept at home by the Red Sox. They suck.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The first question to Aaron Boone at the next postgame press conference (though it should have already been asked) should be: Why do you think you should keep your job as manager of the Yankees?

What would Boone say? I really need to know. I need to know why he thinks he should continue in his current role. Because there’s no one outside of his immediate family who can possibly think he deserves to be Yankees manager.

2. He does nothing well, whether it’s speaking with the media, creating the best possible lineup or managing his bullpen. The one thing he was heralded for when hired was his communication skills, and it’s clear he lacks whatever communication skills the front office thought he had. Just look at Luis Severino not knowing the start time of Game 3 of the 2018 ALDS or the disconnect with Gary Sanchez last season or his inability to understand the severity of inserting Scumbag Domingo German into the clubhouse without addressing his suspension.

3. My breaking point with Boone was the 2018 ALDS. It was clear for nearly all of the 2018 regular season that he was in over his head as Yankees manager with zero managerial or coaching experience. But in the 2018 ALDS it was obvious when his pitching decisions ended the Yankees’ season.

This past weekend seems like it was the breaking point for a lot of Yankees fans who were indifferent to Boone before. Watching him sit in the dugout while his coaches went wild on the incorrect strike call to Rougned Odor was too much for some Yankees fans. Those fans who now want the Yankees to have a new manager are three years late to the movement, but hey, better late than never.  

4. A few weeks ago, I wrote (mostly in jest) that I would sign up for the second wild-card spot right now for the Yankees. Well, there’s no more sarcasm in that declaration, and it’s certainly no longer a joke. A wild-card berth is the Yankees’ only way into the postseason.

Can a 6 1/2-game deficit in the division be erased over 102 games? Sure. The problem is the team that holds the 6 1/2-game lead (the Rays) has too good of a pitching staff to experience an extended losing streak, or to play even close to .500 baseball. And it’s not like the Yankees are only competing with the Rays for the division, they would have to pass both the Blue Jays and Red Sox as well. What exactly have they done over 60 games and 37 percent of the season that would make anyone think they are capable of doing so?

5. If the Rays were to play essentially .500 baseball over their remaining 101 games (51-50), the Yankees would have to go 58-44 (.569) to tie them, and hope it’s enough to be better than both the Blue Jays and Red Sox. There’s no way the Rays are playing .500 baseball for 101 games. They are a .623 team in 2021. They were a .667 in 2020. They were a .636 team in 2019 and a .556 team in 2018. If the Rays were to continue to play .623 baseball for the rest of this season, they would finish 101-61, and the Yankees would have to go 70-32 (.686) to tie them. So yeah, the division is lost.

6. When the Yankees were 12-14 at the end of April, the Rays gave them a second life by going 13-14 in the first month. I said on the Keefe To The City Podcast that the Yankees wouldn’t get a third opportunity if they were to continue to play poorly, and that’s exactly what they have done. Since May 1, the Yankees have gone 19-15, while the Rays have gone 25-9. The Yankees pissed away April and now they have pissed away the AL East.

It’s not like obtaining a wild-card berth is going to be easy either. The Yankees are currently 2 1/2 games out of the second wild-card spot being held by the Astros. (The Red Sox have the first wild-card spot.) The Yankees would need to jump the Blue Jays and Indians before getting to the Astros, and then outlast either the Astros or Red Sox.

7. If the Yankees were to earn a wild-card berth, it would be their fourth in seven seasons, and fourth in the last six full seasons. (They wouldn’t have earned any postseason berth if the standard format was used in 2020.) Since their last World Series win and appearance, the Yankees have gone 28-30 in the postseason, losing one wild-card game (2015), three ALDS (2011, 2018, 2020), four ALCS (2010, 2012, 2017, 2019) and have missed the postseason three times (2013, 2014, 2016). I don’t see how their championship drought ends if they are forced to use Gerrit Cole in a one-game playoff and then be without him for the first two or three games of the division series.

8. The Yankees’ schedule between now and July 4 is:

@ MIN (3)
@ PHI (2)
@ TOR (3)
vs. OAK (3)
vs. KC (3)
@ BOS (3)
vs. LAA (4)
vs. NYM (3)

After these 24 games the Yankees’ season will be 52 percent over. In order for me to change my opinion on the team, they will need to go at least 16-8 over these 24 games, which would have them at 47-37 going into the July 5 day off. That’s a lofty goal for a team that has a minus-4 run differential and the only team they have scored more runs than in the AL is the Tigers, but for the Yankees to turn their season around they are going to have to start achieving lofty goals and stacking wins.

9. Here is an update on how Giancarlo Stanton’s days have gone since coming off the injured list on May 28:

May 28: 0-for-5, 4 K
May 29: Personal day off
May 30: 0-for-3, 2 BB, 2 K
May 31: 0-for-4, 2 K
June 1: Personal day off (0-for-1 as pinch hitter)
June 2: 1-for-3, BB, K
June 3: Personal day off
June 4: 1-for-3, BB
June 5: 0-for-4, 2 K
June 6: Personal day off (0-for-1 with a strikeout as a pinch hitter)

10. I remember when the season got off to a bad start and the comparisons to the 1998 Yankees started. “Well, the ’98 Yankees started out 1-4” is what idiots said. The 1998 Yankees won 114 games. The 2021 Yankees would have to go 83-19 to accomplish that feat.

Anyone still think a slow start for the 2021 Yankees should be compared to the greatest team in baseball history?

Subscribe to the Keefe To The City Podcast. New episode after every game during the season.

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The Yankees aren’t very good right now. The last time I felt really good about the Yankees was right before Adam Ottavino’s first pitch in Game 2 of the 2019 ALCS. The Yankees had a 1-0 series and had a 2-1 lead in Game 2 over Justin Verlander, but Ottavino gave up a home run to George Springer, and since then, the Yankees have been a disappointment.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. At his end-of-the-season press conference last October following the Yankees’ ALDS elimination, Brian Cashman said the following about the Rays: “They are a better franchise right now than we are.”

Since then, the Rays have gone 8-5 against the Yankees outscoring them 64-37, and have a 4 1/2-game lead over the Yankees in the AL East, so they are clearly still better.

Cashman did nothing to close the gap between the teams in the offseason, either because he didn’t feel the need to or because ownership wouldn’t let him. Either way, the Yankees failed to get any better or change in any way.

Cashman turned Masahiro Tanaka into Corey Kluber (injured) and Jameson Taillon (ineffective), turned Adam Ottavino into Darren O’Day (injured) and Justin Wilson (ineffective) and brought back the same exact lineup that failed to hit in the postseason. And when you bring back the same team, you get the same results.

The Yankees team that went 33-27 in the shortened 2020 season is now 31-26  in 2021. The offense is the second-worst in the AL, having only scored more runs than the lowly Tigers, who just swept the Yankees. On days when the starting pitching isn’t lights out, and I mean lights out as in pitch black and complete darkness, the Yankees lose.

2. The Yankees celebrated Memorial Day Weekend by getting swept by the Tigers and then scored one run in the first game of the four-game series against the Rays. Here are the Yankees’ runs scored by series over their last seven series with the average per game for the series in parentheses:

Tampa Bay: 12 (3.0)
Detroit: 5 (1.7)
Toronto: 7 (2.3)
Chicago: 14 (4.7)
Texas: 13 (3.3)
Baltimore: 19 (6.3)
Tampa Bay: 5 (1.7)

3. The Yankees managed to win a game started by Tyler Glasnow because Glasnow momentarily lost control and walked in a run and then threw a wild pitch to score a second run on back-to-back batters. Without Glasnow handing the Yankees a pair of runs in the second game in the series, things might be even worse than they currently are for the Yankees.

The Yankees’ bullpen helped the Yankees with two games in the series. In the second and third games of the series, the bullpen combined to pitch to this line: 8.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 9 BB, 11 K, 0.00 ERA, 1.205 WHIP. Even Luis Cessa pitched one of those 8 1/3 innings with a pair of strikeouts.

After the Yankees won the second and third games of the four-game series, I foolishly thought ‘Maybe this is when they turn their season around.’ Once again, the Yankees made a mockery of wishful thinking.

4. Gerrit Cole turned in his second clunker in four starts, and even if he had been great, he would have had to be dominant because the Yankees only “mounted” (to use one of Aaron Boone’s favorite words) two runs in the game, both on solo home runs, and because you better believe Boone wasn’t going to use Jonathan Loaisiga, Chad Green or Aroldis Chapman in the game.

During the first inning on Thursday, Michael Kay and John Flaherty wondered on the broadcast who would be available for the Yankees out of the bullpen. It would seem impossible everyone wouldn’t be available for a game against the Rays with the Yankees trailing them by 3 1/2 games in the standings, but it was a very logical question to ask with Boone as manager.

Yes, Loaisiga, Green and Chapman had all pitched on Tuesday and Wednesday, but over the last 10 days they had each only pitched three times. None of them pitched from May 24 through May 26, all three pitched on May 27, and then none of them pitched from May 28 through May 31. Isn’t the idea of not pitching them in games the Yankees are losing, so they can pitch in games the Yankees are winning, regardless of whether or not they pitched two days in a row?

5. Two runs against Ryan Yarbrough, the average left-hander, who was supposed to be an opener and ended up throwing a complete game. Yarbrough has now shut the Yankees down in three appearances this season, while being awful against every other team.

Against the Yankees:
17.1 IP, 10 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 14 K, 2 HR, 1.56 ERA, 0.694 WHIP

Against all other teams:
48.2 IP, 53 H, 32 R, 26 ER, 10 BB, 39 K, 8 HR, 4.81 ERA, 1.294 WHIP

6. The next time Cole starts, Gary Sanchez needs to catch. The personal catcher experiment is over. When Cole is allowing five earned runs in two of four starts, to the last-place Rangers and the team that strikes out more than any other team in the Rays, it’s over. Higashioka isn’t hitting even close to enough to get as much playing time as he has been this season, and now the magic of he and Cole has worn out (because there never was any magic).

7. Miguel Andujar hit three home runs in the four-game series against the Rays. So why does he keep batting at the bottom of the order? How are Odor and Brett Gardner not the 8-9 hitters whenever they play? It shouldn’t be hard to fill out the lineup card, yet somehow it is every day.

8. Between Opening Day and May 13, Giancarlo Stanton had four personal days off for extra rest to prevent injury. He got injured anyway because there’s no way to prevent injury other than to not play. So apparently that’s what the Yankees are going to do: not play their highest-paid position player, who is making $179,012.35 per game this season. (Wait until his 2023, 2024 and 2025 when he’s 33, 34 and 35 years old and making $197,530.86 per game).

Since coming off the injured list on May 28, here is how Stanton’s days have gone:

May 28: 0-for-5, 4 K
May 29: Personal day off
May 30: 0-for-3, 2 BB, 2 K
May 31: 0-for-4, 2 K
June 1: Personal day off (0-for-1 as pinch hitter)
June 2: 1-for-3, BB, K
June 3: Personal day off

Stanton is only ever the designated hitter, yet somehow he gets injured more than players who actually play in the field. Considering he has struck out in nine of 19 plate appearances, he has walked to the plate and back to the dugout to sit and wait for his next at-bat 47 percent of the time since returning from the IL. He hasn’t scored a run since coming off the IL, so he has yet to actually round the bases or truly run or run hard.

Stanton doesn’t look like a player who needs to rest, he looks like a player who needs at-bats, having gone 1-for-16 with three walks and nine strikeouts since returning from the IL.

Stanton is having another underwhelming season, hitting .259/.331/.814 and has missed a combined 17 games due to injury and personal days off.

9. Mike Ford is no longer a Yankee … again. Well, he’s still with the Yankees, just not a Yankee in terms of being a major leaguer.

On his last day as his most recent stint in the majors, at 3:45 p.m. the Yankees posted their lineup with Ford batting fifth. Ford entered the game 18-for-131 dating back to the beginning of 2020, but that didn’t stop Boone from batting him in the exact middle of the lineup and ahead of Gary Sanchez, Clint Frazier and Miguel Andujar. Ford went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts in the game, and at 11:55 p.m., the Yankees announced he had been sent down to Triple-A. Good enough to bat fifth for the Yankees at 3:45 p.m., not good enough to be a Yankee at 11:55 p.m.

This isn’t the first time the Yankees have done something like this. Last season, they did it all the time. In a game against the Rays last year, Andujar was used as a pinch hitter for Mike Tauchman with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. Andujar didn’t get on base, and after the game he was sent to the alternate site. Good enough to pinch hit in the ninth, not good enough to be on the team after pinch hitting.

It happened with Ford as well. Ford was sent down at the beginning of September last year, deemed not good enough to be a Yankee for the last month of the regular season. But there was Ford on the postseason roster, and there he was pinch hitting with the season on the line over both Sanchez and Frazier in Game 5. Not good enough to be a Yankee in September, good enough to pinch hit in October.

10. This weekend, the Yankees need to get back on track and need to continue to send the Red Sox where they belong and that’s one place above the Orioles in the AL East standings. The Red Sox have a very challenging schedule coming up, having just played the Astros, they play the Yankees, a make-up game against the Marlins, then the Astros again, the Blue Jays and Braves.

It’s time the Red Sox leave the AL East race and the AL East becomes the three-team race I expected it to be in 2021. The Yankees have the opportunity to do that this weekend.

Do I expect the Yankees to suddenly start hitting and scoring runs at even a mediocre rate? No. But I have no choice other than to think it might happen at some point.

Subscribe to the Keefe To The City Podcast. New episode after every game during the season.

My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is now available as an ebook!