Are the Yankees back? Their chances of sneaking into a postseason spot are still incredibly low, but hey — we have to start somewhere.
New York remained undefeated in the Jasson Dominguez/Austin Wells era by beating the Tigers 3-1 in the Bronx on Tuesday night. It included a milestone home run for Giancarlo Stanton, as well.
The Bombers have won four straight, as well as seven of their last eight games. This hot streak has gotten their record back up to .500 on the year. However, this moment is a little more special than simply having the same number of wins and losses. They’ve 69-69 for the first time in 54 years. And in case you’re having a hard time doing that math, the year was 1969.
The Yankees are 69-69 for the first time since 1969 pic.twitter.com/Ul7lVYflmY
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) September 6, 2023
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Nice. Forget the actual standings — this is the nicest record in baseball.
What does this latest hot streak do for their slim hopes of getting back to October? Not a ton, and mostly because of where we are in the regular-season calendar. The Yankees are 7.5 games back of the final AL Wild Card spot with 24 games to play. But, there are only three teams they’d have to jump over to take that spot (Boston Red Sox, Texas Rangers, and Toronto Blue Jays).
They don’t have any more games left vs. the Rangers. New York does head to Fenway next week for four games with the Red Sox, as well as having six left against the Blue Jays. Manager Aaron Boone‘s club also has the 11th-easiest remaining schedule, according to Tankathon.
Before you really start to get your hopes up, though, let’s bring things back down to reality. FanGraphs has the Yankees’ chances of making the postseason at 0.6%. It’s incredibly low, but at least it’s not zero yet.
New York needs to go on a pretty insane hot streak to get themselves in legitimate postseason contention again. And there’s not a ton of time to get that done. Then again, who thought a couple of weeks ago that this team was capable of going 7-1 over an eight-game span? With three of those games being in Houston vs. the Astros?
Even if the Yankees’ postseason chances continue fading until they’re officially eliminated, they at least have a shot of finishing the year with a winning record. And they accomplished the distinction of having a 69-69 record for the first time in a half-century. Nice.
You can reach Matt Musico at matt.musico@xlmedia.com. You can follow him on Twitter: @mmusico8.
