Yankees Bully The Weaklings

By Sal Maiorana

August 21, 2025

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Sal Maiorana, a friend of the site, shares his analysis on the New York Yankees on his free Pinstripe People Newsletter at https://salmaiorana.beehiiv.com/subscribe. Be sure to check it out!

An edited version of Sal's most recent article follows...

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The Yankees did exactly what they needed to do over the past week and a half as they won seven of eight games against weak teams to turn their sagging season around and jump right back into a much better situation in the chase for a playoff berth. But now the rubber meets the road with the Red Sox coming to the Bronx for a huge four-game series. Lets get to it. 

When last week began, the Yankees were coming off a miserable Sunday afternoon loss to Houston at Yankee Stadium, during which they looked comatose. They had lost three consecutive series, had fallen to 62-56 which was the fewest games they had been above .500 since May 10, were six games behind the Blue Jays for the top spot in the AL East, and most damning was they sat third in the wildcard race, clinging to life just a half-game ahead of the Guardians.

On that day, Aug. 10, the Mariners owned the top wildcard spot and led the Yankees by 3.5 games, and the Red Sox were nestled in between, 2.5 ahead of the Yankees. Clearly, things were not looking good and again, a lot of our discontent was because the Yankees sleepwalked through that loss to the Astros, continuing a trend of uninspired baseball that had stretched for more than two months.

It felt like their season was on the brink and everyone knew what had to be done. The Yankees were entering a portion of their schedule where they were hosting the Twins for three, then traveling to St. Louis for three and Tampa Bay for two. All of those teams are essentially done for the season and, barring a miracle, won’t be playing in October.

The Yankees needed to go a minimum of 6-2 in those eight games, and 7-1 or 8-0, while quite an ask, would have been more preferable.

Well, let’s give it up to the team that we’ve been bashing for so long because they succeeded in that mission and not only have flipped the wildcard standings but have even brought the AL East division race back into focus.

They pounded the Rays into submission the last two nights, hitting an astonishing 14 home runs in the two games to sweep the short series - an MLB record for one team in a two-game series - and they indeed finished 7-1 in this stretch, the only loss coming last Wednesday when they were shut down by Minnesota ace Joe Ryan.

Of course, they gave us all a group aneurysm Wednesday by nearly blowing the finale in Tampa thanks to yet another maddening bullpen implosion, but in the end they found a way to get it done because they turned their spring training home, Steinbrenner Field where the Rays are playing their home games this season, into a Little League park. And thanks to everyone around them hitting the skids lately, the 69-57 Yankees are suddenly a team that bears watching over the final five weeks of the season.

“We’ve never lost confidence,” Aaron Boone said. “They’ve never lost confidence, even through some really tough times and some dark days. It’s there to be had. We haven’t done anything yet. We’ve obviously put together a really good road trip off winning series. We got to keep going, though, and we understand the importance of all these games now to give us a chance to do something special.”

It really is crazy how things have changed. The Mariners lost their fifth in a row Wednesday; the Red Sox have lost three straight and seven of their last 10; and the Guardians have lost five of six. So the Yankees now lead the wildcard chase by 1.5 over Boston, two over Seattle, and the team on the outside looking in is now the red-hot Royals, but the Yankees lead them by 4.5 games. Meanwhile, the Blue Jays, who could not lose for a few weeks, have lost three of four and the Yankees are just four games out in the AL East, three in the loss column.

However, now things get real this weekend. The Red Sox have owned the Yankees this season, and while it was fun beating up on these last three patsies, the Yankees have to start proving they can play with the good teams. They’re a dreadful 4-12 against the Red Sox and Jays combined and that’s the main reason why they aren’t in first place in the division.

The time is upon them to change their fortunes against their oldest rival.

“We’ve been playing our game these past couple of series,” Aaron Judge said. “We’ll stay locked in on that, control what we can control, and take care of business.”