The Yankees have won seven of nine, have won three straight series and have gotten themselves within striking distance of first place in the AL East, something that seemed impossible less than two weeks ago. Now they have a chance to tie the Red Sox in the loss column in a weekend series that is the biggest of the season to date.

The Yankees swept the Blue Jays and they did so in a large part because of Gary Sanchez’s offense and his defense. Aaron Boone should have never made Kyle Higashioka the personal catcher for Gerrit Cole and now he has no valid reason to continue to pair the two.

The Yankees have lost three straight (again) and are back to one game over .500. They have the worst offense in the American League (Congratulations, Brian Cashman and staff!) and their manager is acting like someone who knows his days are numbered in his current position. Everything is going well!

The difference between the Yankees truly battling the Rays for the division as of now and having to focus on a wild-card berth has been their inability to sweep teams when given the opportunity. (Well, that and not being able to beat the Rays, Blue Jays or Red Sox). With a chance to go into Friday's day off off three straight wins against the really, really bad Twins, the Yankees blew a three-run lead and ended their two-game winning streak.

After the recap, Eric Hubbs of the Short Porch Podcast joined me to talk about the the state of the Yankees. We talked just before the start of Thursday night's game, so the mood was more upbeat than it would have been had we talked after the game.

The Yankees won again! Two wins a row! That's called a winning streak. The Yankees beat the Twins 9-6 on Wednesday, scoring more than eight runs in a game for just the second time in 62 games this season.

The Yankees scored eight runs for the first time in more than three weeks and ended their four-game losing streak against the Twins and former Yankee Michael Pineda with an 8-4 win. It was just the fourth win for the Yankees in their last 14 games, but it did set themselves up for what they need to do this week: sweep the Twins.

The Yankees suck. They really do. After getting swept by the Red Sox at home, the Yankees have now lost 10 of their last 13 games and trail the Rays by 6 1/2 games in the division. It's time to start focusing on one of the two wild-card berths, and even earning one of those might not be possible.

The Yankees lost again. This time it was 5-2 to the Red Sox on Friday night at the Stadium. It was another lackluster performance from the Yankees' offense as they are now 8-15 against the Blue Jays, Rays and Red Sox this season. After the game Aaron Boone gave the most idiotic answer to a question of all time, defending his team which leads the league in hitting into double plays, running into outs on the bases and has the second-worst offense in the AL.

The Yankees lost again, and they lost to the Rays again. The Yankees are now 5-8 against the Rays, having been outscored 64-37. The Yankees trail the Rays by 4 1/2 games in the AL East and with the Rays playing the Rangers this weekend and the Yankees playing the Red Sox, the Yankees' season is in trouble.

The Yankees won a game! For only the second time in their last eight games, the Yankees won, beating the Rays 5-3 in 11 innings on Tuesday. Clint Frazier hit a two-run, walk-off home run and the Yankees took a game off their division deficit. There's a still a lot of work to do over the next five days.