We’re nearly there folks. The Yankees have just seven games left in the regular season, with only the thinnest of hopes at the division title left. The Rays will eliminate the Yankees from AL East contention with a combinationwin and a Yankees loss, and with the four-game set between the two about to kick off in the middle of this week that means that New York would essentially have to run the table from here to steal away the division crown. Their most recent outing in Arizona was a letdown as they lost two of three and had some self-inflicted wounds that prevented them from taking the middle game, but truth be told the Yankees have played well overall, owning one of the best records post-Deadline of any American League team — the only problem is the Rays have been a hair better than them through that same stretch, preventing them from gaining any ground whatsoever.
The good news is that the Yankees’ lead over Boston is as secure as the Rays’ lead over them, with a 5.5 game advantage plus the tiebreaker entering the final week of play. That all but assures that they’ll be playing the Wild Card Round at Yankee Stadium, but their fate is still largely up in the air for how far they can go. Aaron Judge’s immediate future is a question mark after he strained his calf trying to get involved without rehab games down the stretch, Ryan Weathers won’t be getting into any of these last regular season games, and Clarke Schmidt was unavailable for precautionary measures over the weekend. What are the Yankees going to do with Judge, and would it be safer to just shut him down? Can they make it far without him if they do or if he misses a significant amount of October? And can they survive the gauntlet run against Boston and Tampa regardless of who is available? If you have questions like these, or anything else on your mind, send ’em in for a chance to be featured in our Yankees mailbag.
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Answers will run on Friday afternoon. All questions received by the night of September 24th will be considered. You can leave your submissions in the comment section below or by e-mail to pinstripealleyblog [at] gmail [dot] com.
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