Yankees Strengthen AL East Hopes

By Sal Maiorana

September 23, 2025

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Sal Maiorana shares his thoughts on the Yankees. Here is an edited version of Sal's latest article.

For Sal's complete analysis on the New York Yankees, you can subscribe to Sal Maiorana's free Pinstripe People Newsletter at https://salmaiorana.beehiiv.com/subscribe.

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The Yankees completed a very good week by taking three of four in Baltimore which gives them seven consecutive series wins on the road, their longest streak since they won nine straight away from the Bronx in 1998 which was a season when they hardly ever lost anywhere. Lets get to it.

I got to enjoy a rare weekend without the Bills so Sunday afternoon, while there was all kinds of craziness happening in the NFL, I spent my time locked in on the Yankees game and I’d have to say that was time well spent.

They played a rock solid game Saturday night during a stress-free 6-1 victory over the Orioles at Camden Yards, and then Sunday, while there was a bit of frustration because the offense could do virtually nothing for nine innings, they pitched great throughout and that allowed them to get to the 10th inning where they exploded for six runs and finished off a series win.

So now we have reached the final week of the regular season, and if you had told me a few weeks ago that the Yankees would still have a chance to win the AL East, I would have told you that you were nuts. In fact, I probably wrote that in a few newsletters, but here we are.

Both the Yankees and Blue Jays had Monday off, now the last push begins with the Yankees hosting the pathetic White Sox for three games, and then the Orioles for three on the weekend. The Jays also play their last six games at home as they host the Red Sox for three games and then the Rays for three.

“It’s huge,” Sunday hitting hero Ben Rice said. “Every game is going to be more important than the last one, so just got to stay on top of it and keep our foot on the gas. We’ve still got a chance to take the division here. We have some important games coming up.”

On the surface, the Yankees certainly have the easier schedule, but it might not matter because the Blue Jays have a two-game lead, and it’s really three because they own the tiebreaker thanks to winning the season series against New York. Think about this: If the Yankees go 6-0 which is entirely possible, the Jays would have to go 3-3 for the Yankees to leapfrog them. Sure, that’s possible as well, but I don’t think that combination of results is likely. A 5-1 Yankees finish might be more realistic, but that would mean the Jays would have to go 2-4 and it’s tough to see that happening.

The math is not great, but the fact that I’m even laying out the various computations is a positive development. The Yankees were buried in the division, 6.5 games back on Aug. 23, so to get this close has been a nice achievement. Since that date they have gone 19-8 and are a season-high 20 games over .500 so the one thing you always wish for as October approaches is happening: They’re peaking at the right time.

After their great start when they opened a 7.5-game lead through May 28, they went into a summer-long coma and looked like a team that if it somehow made it to October, had zero chance of doing anything meaningful. That has changed because the starting pitching continues to be so good, the bullpen was very good in Baltimore, and the offense is still doing its part with an MLB-best 261 home runs and .784 OPS.

If the Yankees can’t catch the Jays, they need to hang on to the top wildcard spot because that means that best-of-three series would be played at Yankee Stadium. Although going on the road wouldn’t be a death knell because the Yankees finished an impressive 44-37 in road games this season. As they start the week, they have only 44 wins at Yankee Stadium.