The weekend could not have gone much better for the Yankees.
By sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals on the road, the Yankees (67-57) went back to being 10 games above .500 for the first time since Aug. 1.
They gained ground in the American League East on the Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox, who both lost Sunday, and moved closer in the AL wild card race to the Seattle Mariners, who dropped two of three to the Mets.
And the Yankees increased their cushion for the third and final AL wild card spot to 3.5 games over the Cleveland Guardians, who were swept at home by the wayward Atlanta Braves.
Add it all up, and the Yankees entered Monday’s off day 5.5 games behind the Blue Jays and a half-game behind Boston in the division. They began the day a half-game behind Boston and Seattle for the top two wild card positions.
“I think we know we’re a good team,” manager Aaron Boone said after Sunday’s 8-4 win. “We believe that, even through some of the down times and some dark moments of the season. I don’t think we’ve ever lost that confidence. Look, we’re capable of this. We’ve got to go prove it.”
With six weeks left in the regular season, the games don’t get any less important from here.
The Yankees’ next six are against divisional opponents, starting with two games in Tampa against the Rays, followed by four against the Red Sox in the Bronx.
The pesky Rays (61-64) can never be disregarded, but the Yankees are catching them at the right time.
Tampa is 9-17 since July 20, with three of those losses coming during a four-game series in the Bronx at the end of the last month. Over that stretch, the Rays are hitting an MLB-worst .220 and averaging only 3.5 runs per game.
The Yankees are 7-4 against the Rays this year, including 3-1 at George M. Steinbrenner Field. Steinbrenner Field, of course, is the Yankees’ spring training ballpark, but the Rays are renting it this season after Hurricane Milton badly damaged Tropicana Field.
Carlos Rodón (12-7, 3.25 ERA) is set to start Tuesday night’s series opener for the Yankees, while right-hander Shane Baz (8-9, 4.93 ERA) is scheduled to pitch for Tampa.
Rodón is fresh off one of his best starts of the season, having limited the Minnesota Twins to one run and one hit over seven innings last week.
In April, the All-Star left-hander hurled six shutout innings with nine strikeouts against the Rays in Tampa. The Yankees tagged Baz for five runs in 3.1 innings during that same series.
The Yankees will have their work cut out for them on Wednesday, as Tampa is set to start right-hander Drew Rasmussen (10-5, 2.60 ERA).
Rasmussen has long dominated the Yankees, with an 0.85 ERA over six appearances, including five starts, in his career. He is 1-1 against them this season.
The Yankees will counter with flame-throwing rookie Cam Schlittler, who is 1-2 with a 3.94 ERA in six career starts.
This week’s games are the first between the divisional foes since they struck a deadline-day trade that sent utilityman José Caballero to the Yankees.
Caballero, who entered Monday with an MLB-high 39 stolen bases, has made an instant impact with the Yankees, hitting .333 with five steals in 10 games. His speed helped spark the Yankees’ go-ahead rally in the ninth inning of Sunday’s win.
“I’m trying to make [opponents] hate me,” Caballero said Sunday. “I don’t want them to like me. I’m just trying to mess with them. I don’t want them to have the full attention on what they’re doing. I’d rather them have a little more attention on me.”
The Yankees went 20-31 from June 13 to Aug. 10, a stretch in which they squandered their AL East lead and fell into third place in the division.
But they have won back-to-back series since then and are averaging 6.7 runs per game over their last six games.
“This was a good week for us to win five out of six games, but there’s a lot of tough opponents coming up,” first baseman Paul Goldschmidt said. “We’ll try to play well and keep going. We definitely have a chance.”
The series against Boston will command considerable attention, considering it is the Red Sox’s final trip to Yankee Stadium this season.
The Yankees’ two-month slide began in mid-June when the Red Sox won two of three in the Bronx. The Red Sox then swept the Yankees in Boston a week later, giving them a 5-1 head-to-head record against their century-old rival.
With the Yankees and Red Sox fighting for the AL East crown and for positioning in the wild card standings, this week’s series comes with significant ramifications.
The Yankees have not announced their probable pitchers for that series, but they are lined up to start Luis Gil, Max Fried, Will Warren and Rodón.
The Red Sox are scheduled to use Lucas Giolito (8-2, 3.63 ERA), Brayan Bello (8-6, 3.25 ERA) and ace Garrett Crochet (13-5, 2.48 ERA) in the first three games.
The Yankees are still navigating a tricky situation with Aaron Judge restricted to DH duty as he recovers from a flexor strain in his right elbow and Giancarlo Stanton needing extra time to recover after five consecutive days — including four starts — in right field.
Stanton did not start any of the games in St. Louis, though he did pinch-hit and draw a walk during Sunday’s decisive rally.
Judge, meanwhile, heated up over the weekend, going 3-for-6 with a home run, a double, two RBI and four walks in the series’ final two games.
The Yankees have the easiest remaining schedule in the American League, according to Tankathon, with seven games against the Baltimore Orioles, seven against the Chicago White Sox, three against the Washington Nationals and three against the Twins.
Many of those games come in the season’s final two weeks.
But for those to matter, the Yankees need to handle their business before then.
“When we play like we’re supposed to play, these are the results you’re going to get,” Warren said Sunday. “We’ve been staying with the process. We haven’t strayed from anything we’ve done. Just head down, keep going, and we’re starting to win again.”