22 Games

On July 25th, the Yankees left Boston, losers of 3-of-4, 9 games back in the AL East and looking like a team needing a miracle to even get back into the playoff race. This morning finds the Yankees tied with Boston thanks to that needed miracle, a 17-5 run of baseball combined with an 8-14 stretch for Boston. It’s as remarkable a turnaround in a short amount of time as I can remember and it would probably go down in team lore if not for two very important facts. First, it’s the middle of August and there is about a quarter of the season to be played. Second, the Rays went 13-7 over the same period and now find themselves with a five-game lead in the AL East.

The amazing thing about these last 22 games is that 16 of them have been decided by no more than two runs. The Yankees went 14-2 in those contests. That’s luck that won’t repeat itself, but the Yankees have been very good in close games before this stretch, winning 29 of 49, a 96-win pace over a full season.

And that’s probably the lesson to take away from all of this. We’re 120 games into the season and the Yankees have already played 65 games that were settled by two runs or less. I wouldn’t expect the last 42 games to be laughers either way. This is simply a team that is going to be involved in a lot of nailbiters the rest of the way. Get your antacid ready.