Schedule About To Get Difficult for Yankees

 The Yankees have pretty much coasted through the past month, but their schedule is about to get a lot harder. After tonight’s game in Oakland, here’s the Yankees upcoming schedule:

·         3 games @ Boston (.568 winning %, co-Wild Card leaders)

·         3 games vs. Texas (.568 winning %, co-Wild Card leaders)

·         3 games vs. Chicago AL (.508 winning %, 2^nd place in AL Central)

Those are 3 potential playoff teams and 3 big series. The Yankees had a huge 4 game sweep against the Red Sox in the Bronx, but they need to show they can go into Fenway and beat them. The Yankees are 4-2 against Texas this season, but Texas, after sweeping Boston in mid-July, has only lost one series since and the Rangers are playing great baseball. The White Sox are in second place but many expect them to give Detroit a run for their money after the acquisitions of Alex Rios and Jake Peavy (expected to come off the DL and start against the Yanks). Chicago also won 3 in a row vs. the Yankees at the end of July but the Yankees responded to win the 4^th game of that series, the beginning of a 7-game winning streak. The Yankees have two off days in there but that schedule should give them reason to need the rest.

After that, though, the Yankees schedule gets considerably less difficult in September:

·         3 games @ Baltimore (.403 winning %, 26.5 games behind Yankees for last place in AL East)

·         4 games @ Toronto  (.470 winning %, 18.5 games behind Yankees for 4^th place in AL East)

·         3 games vs. Tampa Bay (.542 winning %, but 10 games behind Yankees)

·         3 games vs. Baltimore (really bad)

·         2 games vs. Toronto (falling fast)

Out of those games, only Tampa has a shot at the playoffs (3 games out of the Wild Card).

The next three series are key for the Yankees. They will face Penny and Tazawa in the first two games against Boston but get Beckett (vs. Sabathia) on Sunday night. Millwood starts the first game against the Yankees for Texas but then the Yankees get Holland and Nippert, not exactly household names. The caution here is that the Yankees have had a hard time with guys who aren’t household names (I’m still wondering how they lost to Brett Tomko). But the Yankees need to show they can beat these teams. They have a chance of knocking Boston out of the Wild Card lead or putting a serious hurt on a dangerous team like Chicago (their starting pitching, if Peavy comes back healthy, would be really, really good).

But they need to start by winning tonight against Oakland. A series win here would mean at least a 7-game lead over Boston going into Boston. That would be huge.