Tag Archives: american league east

A New York Yankees Diary – Day Twenty-Seven – September 27th, 2025

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So, the Yankees steered their way into the last weekend of the regular season, knowing that if the balance of power stayed the same, the Toronto Blue Jays would take a tie in the division lead and therefore would be able to have a “bye” through the first round of the playoffs.

The tiebreak rules favour Toronto as they have won the majority of the games between the two teams this season.

On the other hand, The Yankees were facing the Baltimore Orioles – the weakest team in the American League East – so going into thi Saturday afternoon game anything could happen.

Cam Schlittler would start the game on the mound for the New York Yankees whilst for Baltimore, Tomoyuki Sugano would be the starting pitcher.

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A New York Yankees Diary – Day Twenty-Three – September 23rd, 2025

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And so back in NYC, the Yankees faced quite a comfortable run in. They would first face the Chicago White Sox – the worst team in the American League, second worst in all of major league baseball. After that they would face the Baltimore Orioles who have the poorest record in the Yankees’ own division – the American League East.

The difficulty is that, through these six games they will not only need to keep pace with the Toronto Blue Jays but surpass the Blue Jays record over the same period. They went into the first Chicago game two games behind Toronto and (because of Toronto having the advantage in the tie-breaker rules), they would need to finish one game ahead of the Blue Jays.

The tie-breaker stipulates that the team with most wins in the games between the two teams would finish top in event of a dead heat. And in this, Toronto have the clear edge – and the two teams will not play each other again in the regular season.

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A New York Yankees Diary – Day Seventeen – September 27th, 2024

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The Yankees now have a decisive lead over Baltimore, and Baltimore have a wild card qualification. The outcome of the series between the two teams could not really have worked out better for both participants. The Orioles really couldn’t expect to catch the New York team on the season, but just simply to leave town having taken the 3-game set, 2-1 gives them something of a psychological edge should the two meet again in the playoffs.

Really, only one matter remained for the New York Yankees. That was to clinch the top seed spot. This too seems likely to be the outcome, but the Yankees were balancing the need to do that with the need to rest players and keep them fresh. It is a difficult equation because the Yankees were likely to have the rest they needed if they did not play in the wild card series and rested everyone through that “bye” period,

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A New York Yankees Diary – Day Fourteen – September 24th, 2024

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Back to attending the games in person…

And so back in the Bronx, and just or more significantly, the Yankees were to face the Baltimore Orioles.

Prior to this game, the Yankees were 6 games clear in the American League East. There were six games to play which meant that if Baltimore won all their remaining games and the Yankees lost theirs… Well, you can do the math. If Baltimore swept the Yankees here, the two teams would be a few steps closer to an unlikely one game playoff to see who would rule the division. Both teams are going to be in the post-season, now it is a battle for home advantage in the playoffs, and to see who would play who – plus the little things like a division title and how many games the Yankees would have in the wins column at the end of the season. They couldn’t make 100, but 98 was not a bad target.

The starting pitchers on the mound would be Dean Kremer for the Orioles and Clarke Schmidt for the New York team. Kremer had appeared in 24 games and taken 7 wins. Schmidt, who had struggled with injuries this season, had ony 13 starts (he had missed the whole of June, July and August) , and taken 5 wins although he had a higher win percentage than Kremer. From compraing just the pitchers’ records this one could go either way.

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The New York Yankees in August – Part One – The Batters (2024)

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The New York Yankees are not the team they were in the first months of the season, but they have improved from the form that they were showing in June and July.

In August, they went 14-12. They managed to return to 1st position in the American League – and opened up a 1 1/2 game lead over the Baltimore Orioles. It could be better, but not what’s not to like right?

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The New York Yankees in May – Part One – The Batters (2024)

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The New York Yankees had a sensational month in May. They went 21-7 and dominated the league and their division.

Aaron Judge, who had struggled in April, bounced back with strength. Juan Soto continued at the high level he set in April. Their starting pitchers exceeded expectations. The bullpen had as much depth as anticipated.

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The New York Yankees in September / October – Part One – The Batters (2023)

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At the end of August, Brian Cashman (Yankees’ General Manager) said “It’s been a disaster of a season. We’re embarassed by it”.

This came, of course, with the Yankees’ usual gift for hyperbole. It was what the less thoughtful fans wanted to hear, and it just built things towards the inevitable firestorm.

For Hal Steinbrenner, and those at the financial helm of the Yankees, it had of course been disastrous. They looked like they were going to miss the post-season (they still had an outside chance when the statement was made – and that would be a tremendous financial loss. They had cut Aaron Hicks, and Josh Donaldson was about to go down the same route. They would carry the can for those poorly chosen signings and their contracts.

But they have finished the season over .500, and were just about to pull themselves up by their bootstraps with a 17-11 last month plus of the season, and move above the old enemy, Boston Red Sox into 4th place in the American League East.

So, really not good, but not a disaster. It gave them a chance to look at some developing young players (not everything went smoothly as we shall see), and to re-examine their priorities. Some fans will still spit and cuss, but that’s a given. Here’s the batting stats for September and October.

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The New York Yankees in August – Part One – The Batters (2021)

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The New York Yankees had a 21-8 record on the month in August. It seems odd therefore, given that this was far and away their strongest month of the season, that I remain unconvinced about their potential to reach the post-season

On one hand, the vast majority of those wins came in consecutive games, when the momentum and positivity was spinning out of control. On the other hand, once that winning sequence was broken, they lost the four remaining games of the month – against the Oakland Athletics (a potential challenger for the New York team for a wild card spot) and against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim who went into their series with the Yankees below .500 on the season.

It is an interesting conundrum and it will be very interesting to see what September brings. Boston have remained in contention. Toronto are fast improving. Oakland will need to sort out some of their issues but could still challenge for a wild card spot and Seattle have also come into the reckoning.

The Yankees would need to maintain something like their August record to challenge the Tampa Bay Rays for the AL East division lead, which, frankly, I can’t see happening. This means that any two of five could capture the wild card route to the playoffs. The Yankees of August could do it. The Yankees of July will not.

Let’s see what happened in August-

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Professional baseball in the UK?

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A tale of three cities…

Surely, it could never catch on… could it?

The date: 29 & 30th June 2019

The place: Olympic Stadium, Stratford, London, UK

What: Major League Baseball

Who: The New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox (with Boston playing as the home team).

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Red Sox Take American League East – at Yankee Stadium

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Who: New York Yankees

What: versus Boston Red Sox 

Where: Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York

When: 18 to 20 September 2018

Well, surely the Yankees – after their disappointing series loss against Toronto – couldn’t bounce back and manage to win the series against Boston — and still allow the Red Sox to clinch the AL East in the Bronx? Well, if anyone could, these contrary Yankees could. Read on…

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