Perspectives: 3 Great Weeks

By Paul Semendinger

August 24, 2025

***

Three weeks. That's all it was. Three weeks.

The 2025 Yankees were a great baseball team for three weeks in 2025. They were super for 22 days (20 games). Outside of that 22 day period, the Yankees have not been a good team.

There is a narrative that the Yankees were really good in April and May. They weren't.

The 2025 Yankees were really good for three weeks in May. That's it.

The only reason the Yankees are even in the pennant race is that they had a great three weeks in May.

The Facts:

• The Yankees went 3-0 in March to open the season.

• The Yankees next went 15-13 in April. That's not great. It's good. It's not great.

• The Yankees then lost 3 of the first 4 games to begin May.

• After play on May 5, the Yankees were 19-16, but from April 1 to May 5, the Yankees were a .500 team at 16-16.

• Then the Yankees got hot. From May 6 to May 28, the Yankees went 16-4.

• But from May 29 to now, the Yankees have gone 34-40.

• The Yankees had a losing record in June.

• The Yankees had a losing record in July.

• The Yankees have a losing record in August.

• Outside of those 20 games in May, the Yankees have gone 53-55 on the season.

***

The Yankees didn't have a great start of the season. That's a false narrative. The more accurate statement is the Yankees were a mediocre team that had a great three weeks in May. Then reality hit, and since then, they've been a bad team that is propped up by the 16-4 record they had over those three weeks in May.

Those 20 games cover up just how poorly the team has been otherwise.

***

Some fans like to look to run differential as a mark of a good team. They might point out that the Yankees' seasonal run differential is +96, good enough for third in the league. They might use this to argue that the team is actually pretty good! And that number looks impressive, again, until one looks at the entire season absent those three weeks.

***

Quick note - I am not impressed by run differential. It seems like a meaningful stat, but it can be, and often is, skewed by a few blowouts. This is very true of this year's team. The games when the Yankees have scored tons of runs obscures the fact that the offense has not been consistent nor even very good for much of the year.

Here are the games when the Yankees have blown out their opponents that skew their overall run differential. (Note, also the dates of the blowouts, most came early, and a full third of them came during the 16-4 stretch.):

• March 29: 20-9 over Milwaukee

• March 30: 12-3 over Milwaukee

• April 5: 10-4 over Pittsburgh

• April 27: 11-2 over Toronto

• April 29: 15-3 over Baltimore

• May 6: 12-3 over San Diego

• May 9: 10-2 over "Oakland"

• May 11: 12-2 over "Oakland"

• May 12: 11-5 over Seattle

• May 24: 13-1 over Colorado

• June 10: 10-2 over Kansas City

• June 29: 12-5 over "Oakland"

• July 8: 10-3 over Seattle

• July 11: 11-0 over Chicago (AL)

• August 19: 13-3 over Tampa

Overall run differential from those games: 182-47, (+135.)

Take away the 15 blowouts, and the Yankees overall run differential is 476-504. A negative run differential.

This is why I simply do not buy into run differential as a meaningful stat regarding a team's overall performance.

***

You know what stat I like in regard to a team? Wins. The Yankees don't have enough of them.

***

Here's another stat I like - World Championships. That's something the Yankees don't earn any longer.

***

But if one likes Run Differential, here are the numbers...

In May, the Yankees scored 135 runs and allowed only 93. That looks very good. But those numbers are again propped up by the 20 game spread noted above.

Over that 20 games, the Yankees scored 115 runs and allowed only 53.

Over the other games in May, at the start and the finish of the month, the Yankees scored 20 runs and allowed 43.

Those 20 games, three weeks in May, skew the overall data to make the Yankees seem like a much better team than they've played over the course of the entire season.

The Yankees have scored 658 runs this season. Take away those three weeks, and that number is reduced to 543.

The Yankees have allowed 551 runs, take away the 53 they allowed over those 20 games and they've allowed 498. That's a run differential of 45 for the season - much less impressive.

***

One can rightly sum up the Yankees season thusly:

• A great three games to open the season

• A mediocre period from April 1 to May 5

• An amazing period from May 6 to May 28

• Poor play from May 29 on

Those three weeks in May, 20 games over 22 days, was the only time the Yankees have been a good team this season. That period obscures just how poorly they have played over the entirety of the rest of the season.

I understand that all the games count. I get it. But for this team, this year, those 20 games help to paint a picture of the team's overall performance that is not an accurate representation of the team's overall play.

Those three weeks make the 2025 Yankees seem a lot better than they really are. The truth is, they haven't been a good team except for during those three weeks.