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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The Yankees went to Boston for the weekend riding high, having won four straight, the same way they went to Boston a month ago having won seven of nine. Last month, they left Boston having been swept by the Red Sox, and this time, they lost three of four.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. If the Yankees or any of their fans thought the team could still win the division, you can kiss that dream goodbye. Last week, I said a 2-2 weekend against the Red Sox would be bad, and the Yankees went on to lose three of four, adding two games to their loss-column deficit, which is now at eight. They took four games off the schedule, and more importantly four games against the Red Sox off the schedule, and lost two games of ground. The Yankees are now 3-10 against the Red Sox this season.

Sure, the Yankees could win the six remaining games against the Red Sox and play two games better than them in all other games to tie them on the season, and sure, I can win this week’s Powerball drawing, but what would make you think the Yankees can beat any team six straight times, let alone a team that has embarrassed them all season. If the Red Sox play .500 baseball the rest of the season (31-31), the Yankees would have to go 41-23 to tie them. I don’t know which is less likely, the Red Sox playing .500 or the Yankees .641.

2. After almost suffering their latest worst loss of the season on Wednesday to the Phillies, the Yankees did suffer their worst loss of the season on Friday, blowing a 3-1 ninth-inning lead. Then on Saturday, Gerrit Cole was once again bad in Boston. Thankfully, the Yankees staged their own improbable comeback to win on Saturday or things would be even worse than they currently are, and things are really bad right now. The icing on the cake was Sunday’s loss, in which the Yankees took a 4-0 lead into the bottom of the eighth inning after no-hitting the Red Sox for seven innings, and somehow lost.

3. The loss on Sunday was the latest reminder of how badly this Yankees team is managed by Aaron Boone. The Yankees held a 4-0 lead with six outs to go and had seemingly every reliever available because of a lack of recent usage and because of the day off coming on Monday. Rather than give his elite relievers a clean inning to work with and turn it over to a combination of Jonathan Loaisiga, Chad Green, Zack Britton and Aroldis Chapman, Boone stayed with Scumbag Domingo German because he had no-hit the Red Sox through on 90 pitches through seven innings.

“I didn’t want to go much past 80 today,” Boone said of Scumbag German’s pitch count. “I already knew we were kind of in that danger zone a little bit, so just kind of going hitter-to-hitter at that point.”

Boone didn’t want “to go much past 80 pitches” with Scumbag German, yet he was already at 90 when he sent him back out there to start the eighth. Boone came very close to flat-out admitting he was giving German a chance to throw a no-hitter even though it was going to take something around 120-plus pitches to do so, when Boone didn’t want him to “go much past 80 pitches.”

“It was just batter-to-batter,” Boone said of his eighth-inning management. “I was certainly a little uncomfortable where we were.”

There’s nothing like trying to steals outs when every game is essentially a playoff game in order to eventually make the playoffs. Boone was trying to steal outs in a must-win game to not lose any ground in the division with his bullpen as rested as it will ever be, and he still decided to go batter-to-batter with Scumbag German even though he admitted to feeling uncomfortable about what he was doing. Simply amazing.

4. “Given as efficient as he was and as well as he was pitching, bv not having given up a hit yet,” Boone continued. “I was going to let him go batter-to-batter there and continue to have to make a decision.”

Boone is at his worst when he has to make decisions. The Yankees are horrific in close games because of him. In the last five days alone, he used Nick Nelson and Brooks Kriske in high-leverage situations, used Kriske on back-to-back days in high-leverage situations, didn’t pull Green when he clearly didn’t have it, didn’t use his two highest-paid relievers in Britton and Chapman when he could have and then put a potential individual achievement (possible no-hitter) above the team winning a crucial game before not immediately recognizing Loaisiga didn’t have it.

5. And Loaisiga didn’t have it. He allowed a double to Hunter Renfroe, a single to Christan Vazquez, a single to Franchy Cordero and a double to Enrique Hernandez before getting pulled. The 7-8-9 and light-hitting 1 got to Loaisiga.

“I mean, obviously, coming back and back-to-back days here looked like he just missed on the plate with a lot of pitches,” Boone said. “Not his day.”

“Not his day” because Boone made it not his day. Loaisiga had pitched the day before, and wasn’t exactly sharp, but it wasn’t to be expected since he hadn’t pitched in 15 days (July 9) because of the All-Star break and because he contracted COVID-19. Boone asking Loaisiga to pitch again on Sunday was odd since it was the first time Loaisiga was pitching on back-to-back days … ever. That’s right. Loaisiga had NEVER pitched on consecutive days in his career, yet the manager was asking him to do it in an immensely important game, which was going to be the difference between the Yankees being six games or eight games back in the loss column in the division.

6. “We were set up at the back end,” Boone said, “and just couldnt get it done today.”

The Yankees were set up, and Boone ruined it. He didn’t need to go to Loaisiga. It wasn’t out of necessity. Green hadn’t pitched since Thursday and Britton hadn’t pitched since Wednesday. Since Chapman’s ability to pitch is tied to a specific inning (ninth) and specific fake scenario (save opportunity), he wasn’t going to be an option for this manager in the eighth inning.

It’s the manager’s job to put his players in the best possible position to succeed, and Boone has acknowledged that idea at times this season in his postgame press conferences, yet he never seems to do it.

7. “Really tough one, obviously,” Boone said. “Yeah, I mean that’s a tough one we’ve gotta get past.”

The amount of times Boone says “obviously” and “you know” is ridiculous, but so are his references to the “tough losses” and “gut punches” this Yankees team has suffered. Multiple times a week Boone seems to say the Yankees lost “a tough one” and “they have to get past it.” That’s because the Yankees seem to only play close games, and the ones they lose, they lose in excruciating fashion.

8. “These guys have handled and dealt with adversity,” Boone said. “We’ve dealt with it in this series and bounced back and I know we’ll do it again.”

The Yankees haven’t bounced back from devastating defeats well at all. They’re four games over .500, nine games back in the division, 3 1/2 games back for the second wild card, 20-28 in the division, 3-10 against the Red Sox, own the second-worst offense in the AL and have a worse record than the Mariners. The Royals (42-55) are closer to the Yankees than the Yankees are to the Red Sox. The Yankees haven’t bounced back since Opening Day and they hardly bounced back over the weekend. They blew a two-run, ninth-inning lead on Thursday, watched their ace get embarrassed on Friday and came back to win on Saturday only to blow another late lead on Sunday. Sure, the Yankees are able to stand up before the 10-count, but then they just take another uppercut and end up back on the floor. They aren’t “bouncing back” in the least. They are simply growing closer and closer to being knocked out for good.

9. “It’s another well-played game by our guys,” Boone said. “They continue to grind and continue to play well and we’ve gotta continue to do that.”

I don’t know how you lose three of four and blow two late leads and then say your team played well, or that they continue to play well. Their highest-paid starter was knocked around in both starts in Boston this season. Their highest-paid position player is 7-for-45 with one extra-base hit against the Red Sox. Their two highest-paid relievers were somehow unavailable in Thursday’s loss and used too late in Sunday’s loss. All four of their elite relievers were anywhere from shaky to awful over the weekend. One of the arms they kept on the 40-man roster over Garrett Whitlock, who is now pitching for Boston, threw four wild pitches in an inning. The offense scored 14 runs in four games at Fenway Park. How exactly is this team playing well or continuing to play well? That great 4-1 second-half record is now 5-4.

“Obviously, headed into an off day and huge series coming up with Tampa,” Boone said. “But yeah, another extremely tough one”

So Boone was aware of Monday’s day off and still decided to go with Loaisiga. Good to know.

10. Monday is a perfect day to fire Boone. The team is coming off another disastrous series in Boston with two more blown late leads, which can be directly attributed to his mismanagement. The Yankees are about to play three games against the team they are chasing for a wild-card berth. Aaron Judge and Gio Urshela are about to return, Luis Severino is close and Corey Kluber is throwing and the trade deadline is Friday. Monday makes all the sense in the world to move on from Boone and try to change things up for the final 64 games of the season and earn a wild-card berth and reach the postseason.

No, the Yankees won’t fire Boone because the front office and ownership aren’t about to admit they screwed up by giving the keys to the kingdom to an idiot with no prior experience. Expect some more “tough losses” and “gut punches” at the Trop this week and expect many more over the remaining 64 games. These Yankees only play close games, which means Boone’s decision making will impact nearly every game. As long as Boone is in charge, “tough losses” and “gut punches” will define the Yankees.

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The Yankees did what I asked them to do, which was to do to the Phillies in New York what the Phillies did to them in Philadelphia: win both games of the two-game series. The Yankees have now won four straight and four of five since the All-Star break.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. These Yankees are fun. And by these Yankees I mean the players, not the manager, who continues to mismanage his roster and bullpen and spew lies when speaking with the media. But these Yankees led by Greg Allen and Estevan Florial are fun.

These Yankees are fun because they’re winning, having won four of five games since the All-Star break. The Yankees entered the second “half”of the season needing to win 50 of their remaining 73 games to win the division, a .685 winning percentage over two-and-a-half months and so far they have played even better (.800), outscoring the Red Sox and Phillies 24-15. They have a long way to go to holding one of the three available postseason spots to them (3 1/2 games back of the second wild card, six games back of the first wild card and seven games back in the divison), but it’s a start, and they needed this kind of start after the break to have a chance at saving their season.

2. If the Yankees were at full strength, there’s no way Brett Gardner should be on the team over Greg Allen. Of course, Gardner hit a wall-scraping solo home run on Tuesday night, which will solidify his roster spot and playing time for the rest of the season, but the only thing he’s better at than Allen is age and seniority. And Gardner’s presence as a veteran leader on the team hasn’t exactly gotten the Yankees anywhere in recent seasons.

“Been an absolute pro in the room and been incredibly productive between the lines,” Boone said of Allen. “Obviously, the element he brings of running the bases, the versatility, and the really good defense he brings in the outfield … Every at-bat, the quality of the at-bat has been really strong.”

In five games, Allen is 5-for-12 (.417/.500/.750) with five runs, two doubles, a triple, two RBIs and three walks. He has been successful in all three stolen-base attempts and has been a part of every Yankees rally in the second half.

3. The same goes for Estevan Florial. All Yankees fans have been told about him is “he isn’t ready,” and yet, he was the most important player for the Yankees on Tuesday and scored the go-ahead run in the seventh on Wednesday.

“He’s got loads of talent,” Boone said about Florial. “The quality of the at-bat was there too. Results, yes, but really good at-bats too. It wasn’t an accident.”

In three games, Florial is 3-for-9 (.333/.455/.778) with two runs, a double, home run, two RBIs and two walks as well as a stolen base. His at-bats have been exceptional and he looks everything like the player the Yankees dreamed me might one day become (yes, I know, small sample size). I pray Florial continues to be great and to start for this Yankees team because the better he does, the less likely it is that Aaron Hicks has a future with this team.

3. The Yankees have won these last four games with singles and bunts and stolen bases and hit-and-runs, and the occasional home runs. The station-to-station baseball, which has ruined every Yankees season over the last 11 years has been temporarily removed as the team’s strategy with the absence of Aaron Judge and Luke Voit, and the Yankees have had to rely on other ways to score runs than waiting around for someone to hit a three-run home run, which usually never comes.

After Aaron Nola dominated the Yankees for 7 2/3 shutout innings earlier this season, the Makeshift Yankees got to him on Tuesday night. They manufactured their first run with an Allen triple and productive ground out by Florial. Then trailing by a run, Allen walked, stole second, moved to third on a Florial flyout and scored on an error. Then the bats came alive and Gardner hit a home run, Gary Sanchez hit a home run, Giancarlo Stanton hit a home run and Florial hit his first career home run, and the Yankees won 6-3.

4. The four solo home runs were responsible for two-thirds of the Yankees offense, but it was the speed of Allen that rattled Nola and took him off his game as Allen’s extended leads and the threat of him stealing his way into scoring position got to Nola. In the age of advanced stats, stolen bases have been mostly removed the game, as the risk of getting caught has been thought of as not being worth the gamble. But even David Cone, who loves advanced stats as much as anyone, says there’s a place in the game for stealing bases. Speaking from experience, he explained on YES on Tuesday with Allen leading off first, how much of a distraction it is to go from the windup to the stretch and to have to worry about giving up an extra base. Cone said it affected him when he was on the mound, and as a borderline Hall of Famer, if it affected Cone and his illustrious career, it’s certainly going to affect someone like Nola, and it did.

5. On Wednesday night, Cone said something that still haunts me even though the final result favored the Yankees. “It’s Nick Nelson’s game right here,” Cone said in the eighth inning of the two-game series finale.

Nelson was in the game because Boone had seemingly made Chad Green unavailable, saying as much with this postgame exchange with the media.

“Was Chad Green unavailable?”

“Yes.”

“He only threw 13 pitches.”

“He threw 30 two days before that, so he’s thrown over 40 pitches in three days, so Greeny was down. I wanted to avoid Greeny last night just because it’s been a little heavy for him lately. Yeah, he was definitely down tonight.”

Here are Green’s recent appearances:

July 10: Off
July 11: 12 pitches
July 12: Off
July 13: Off
July 14: Off
July 15: Off
July 16: Off
July 17: Off
July 18: 29 pitches
July 19: Off
July 20: 13 pitches

Boone was right, Green had thrown 13 pitches the night before. He was wrong about Green throwing 30 pitches on Sunday (he only threw 29). But what Boone failed to mention was that prior to the 29 pitches, Green had thrown 12 pitches over the previous eight days. Over the 11 days before Wednesday, Green had thrown 54 pitches.

If Boone hadn’t used Green on Tuesday, which he said he didn’t want to, he would have thrown even less, and the Yankees probably lose on Tuesday as a result. It’s hard to believe anything Boone says, but when he continues to say “the season is on the line” and then manages as if the Yankees have a 20-game lead on a postseason spot, it’s embarrassing.

6. After putting 31 baserunners on in 20 2/3 innings, while allowing 11 earned runs and four home runs as a rookie for the 2020 Yankees, Nelson’s 2021 had been unbelievably bad even before he entered Wednesday’s game. After taking the loss in the 10th inning on Opening Day, he had somehow been allowed to ruin two games against the Rays, one against the Braves and another against the Indians all in the month of April alone. He appeared in one game in June for the Yankees and allowed six baserunners and four earned runs in 1 2/3 innings against the Rays again, and in his only July appearance before Wednesday, he was idiotically chosen as the opener for a game in Seattle, and walked the bases loaded in the first inning, needing to be relieved after recording only two outs.

Then came Wednesday. After a Gleyber Torres error and a pair of walks by Zack Britton, Nelson was brought in with the bases loaded and one out and the Yankees holding a 5-2 lead in the eighth inning.

7. Nelson allowed a two-run single to the first hitter he faced — No. 9 hitter Luke Williams — to put a dent in the Yankees’ lead, making it 5-4. With runners now on first and second, Nelson walked the free-swinging Jean Segura to load the bases again. Two pitches later, he threw a pitch to the backstop and the Phillies tied the game. Miraculously, Nelson struck out J.T. Realmuto before walking Bryce Harper to once again load the bases. Thankfully, Andrew McCutchen decided to jump on the first he saw from Nelson, rather than let Nelson walk in another run, and McCutchen flew out to center to the end the inning.

Nelson threw 25 pitches (just 13 strikes), gave up a two-run single, walked two, threw a wild pitch, and allowed all three inherited runners to score and it wasn’t even his worst outing of the season. His ERA came down as he only screwed over Britton’s, and Nelson now has a respectable 9.45 ERA and 2.175 WHIP.

8. The Yankees somehow won a game Asher Wojciechowski, in which Justin Wilson, Nick Nelson and Brooks Kriske also pitched. Reminder: Nelson and Kriske were kept by the Yankees over Garrett Whitlock, who has 1.34 ERA and 1.043 WHIP for the Red Sox, and has thoroughly dominated the Yankees in four appearance: 7.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K.

9. “Kinda building on, frankly, his last couple outings,” Boone said of Wilson. “He gave a home run in his last outing, the time before that I think he gave up a run. But it’s different, it’s a different guy than what we saw before.”

I like how Boone says Wilson has been a “different guy” of late, and then says all the bad he has done of late. Wilson did pitch 1 1/3 scoreless innings on Wednesday, after walking the first hitter he faced. In his July 16 apperances, he allowed one earned run in one inning. On July 8, he retired the only batter he faced. On July 3, he allowed four hits, a walk and five earned runs without recording an out. I’m not exactly sure when Wilson became a “different guy” over his previous three appearances, but OK.

“It’s been a fun brand of baseball here the last few days,” Boone said after the first win of the series, in what was one of the only truthful things he has said in 2021 going back to his first press conference in spring training.

10. It’s been a fun brand because the Yankees are winning, and they need to keep winning. On Thursday, the Yankees begin a 10-game, 11-day road trip against the Red Sox (4), Rays (3) and Marlins (3). The Yankees need to win seven of these 10 games, and if they have any aspiration of reaching the postseason as the AL East winner, three of hose seven wins will need to come this weekend in Boston.

“There’s no denying the importance of it,” Boone said of the road trip. “It’s a tough road trip … We understand the importance and urgency of every day.”

I understand the importance and urgency of this road trip. I think the Yankees players understand the importance and urgency of this road trip. I’m not sure if Boone understands the importance and urgency of this road trip. If he does, he won’t manage like he did on Wednesday night.

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!