New York Yankees‘ AL East foe Tampa Bay has a very easy August schedule, and will try to use that to their advantage and make a run.
The Rays won’t be playing a team with a record better than .500 until August 27th when they take on the Astros. In the meantime, they have games against the Orioles, Blue Jays, Tigers, Mariners, etc. But all of them are bad teams.
Since those teams are so bad and Tampa is good, they have a shot at winning a lot of games this month. So, to prevent a run, the Yankees just have to keep winning too. The Yankees and Rays don’t face off until September, so nobody can gain any ground that way.
However, after the Red Sox series concludes, the Yankees have 10 easier games against AL East friends in the Orioles and the Blue Jays. They get the Orioles for seven and the Blue Jays for three. All of those are games that the Yankees must not lose at all costs.
The Tampa Bay Rays are in a good spot in their schedule to make a run for first, but will the Yankees be able to hold them off? They have a few easy games themselves and want to get wins in those to propel themselves way ahead into cruise control for the rest of the regular season.