The State That I Am In

Bonus points for anyone who gets the reference from the title.

An off day is a good time to step back and take a look at the big picture of where the Yankees are. The team's record currently stands at 71-56, good enough for 2nd place in both the AL East and the AL Wild Card races. Lets take a look at what it'll take to make it to first.

The Red Sox are 5 games up on the Yankees in the pennant race at 76-51. At that pace they'll end the season with 97 wins. To match that, the Yankees would have to win 26 of their remaining 35, a ludicrous .743 pace. The Yankees have been the best team in the majors since the All-Star break, and even then they've been playing at a .683 clip, and if they keep it up through the end of the season, they'll be at 95 wins. Simply put, the Yankees aren't going to win the pennant without some help from the Red Sox. The teams face off against each other six more times this season, and if the Yankees don't win at least four of those games, they can forget about the pennant.

Of course if they can't overtake the Red Sox, there's still the far more attainable Wild Card berth. Seattle, at 71-53 is only a game and a half ahead of the Yankees, and are on a pace to win 93 games. To match that, the Yankees would have to go 22-13.

As fate would have it, the Yankees are scheduled to play 22 games against losing teams and 13 games against winning teams (actually, to be completely accurate, Toronto is sitting at .500, but its close enough). Thus, the path to the playoffs is pretty clear. If they can beat up on the bad teams, even .500 ball against the good ones ought to be enough. Its not a bad spot to be in.