After an 11-3 drubbing at the hands of the Baltimore Orioles Monday night, the New York Yankees find themselves in third place and seven games behind the first-place Orioles in the A.L. East standings. The loss was the Yankees' third straight, and those three losses dropped them out of second place and a full game behind the Toronto Blue Jays in the A.L. East. It also pushed them three full games behind the Detroit Tigers for the second A.L. Wild Card spot with the Blue Jays and the Seattle Mariners directly in front of them.
With 44 games left to play this season, the Yankees cannot afford an extended losing streak. They have an easy schedule coming up after the series with Baltimore concludes on Wednesday. The Yankees will then spend the next nine games playing three sub-.500 hundred teams: Tampa Bay Rays (road), Houston Astros (home), and Chicago White Sox (home). Tampa Bay and Houston are both 5-5 in the month of August (as of August 12) while Chicago is 3-7.
One thing that may help is the Tuesday night rainout. This allows the Yankees to have their first day off since July 31. They also have a scheduled day off Thursday before heading to Florida for their weekend series with the Rays. They can use these days off, especially if they can get Michael Pineda to go deep into Wednesday's game, to rest their weary bullpen -- which is ranked 23rd in the Majors in ERA. Pineda, though, is fresh off a long DL stint (over three months), and he pitched only 7.2 innings spread over two Minor League rehab starts this month.
Baltimore is on a roll at 8-3 in the month of August. Seattle is 7-3, and Toronto is also faltering at 3-7. What the teams the Yankees are chasing do matters, but the Yankees must win their own games before worrying about them. They have the perfect chance to turn things around in the coming days. At this point, the Yankees are still in the race, but if they cannot gain ground while playing Tampa Bay, Houston and Chicago, then the Yankees are in danger of falling out of playoff contention.