So sweeping that series at home against the Tampa Bay Rays felt good. Maybe going over the Border to play those pesky Toronto Blue Jays would be a tougher test.
If last night's game is any indication, no. We smacked them around, and that felt good, too.
Too often, Jordan Montgomery hasn't gotten enough run support. The Yankee hitters must have had someone hold their beers. The Jays led 1-0 after 3 innings, but it was mostly Yanks from then on. The Yankees scored 2 runs in the top of the 4th, starting with a Gleyber Torres double.
Then came the top of the 5th. Are you ready? It began when Trent Thornton hit Anthony Rizzo with a pitch. I don't think it was intentional. This was followed by back-to-back home runs from Giancarlo Stanton and DJ LeMahieu. That was followed by back-to-back doubles by Torres and the much-maligned Joey Gallo.
Thornton off the mound, Trevor Richards on it. Isiah Kiner-Falefa singled. Kyle Higashioka struck out. The Jays intentionally walked Aaron Judge to set up the double play. Josh Donaldson struck out. But now, the Yankees had batted around, and Rizzo crushed a grand slam to right center. Stanton grounded to 2nd to end it: 8 runs, 6 hits, a walk and a hit-by-pitch. No errors, but the Yankees didn't need them.
To put it another way: As good as the Yankees have been this year, they scored more runs in that 1 inning than they had in 49 of their 1st 63 games.
Anything after that was going to be gravy. Torres was hit by a pitch to start the 9th (probably also unintentional), and Gallo hit a home run. (Sure, in "garbage time.")
Montgomery went 6 innings, allowing 2 runs on 3 hits and 1 walk. The bullpen was fine after that. Yankees 12, Blue Jays 3. WP: Montgomery (3-1). No save. LP: Ross Stripling (3-2). That's 8 straight, and 15 out of the last 16.
The American League Eastern Division race is pretty much over: The Yankees lead the Jays by 11 games, the Rays by 13, and the Boston Red Sox by 13 1/2. Even in the fight for home-field advantage in the postseason, the Yankees lead the AL West-leading Houston Astros by 8, the AL Central-leading Minnesota Twins by 12, and the team with the best record in the National League, the Mets, by 6.
And yet, this is still a Brian Cashman team. There's still a cloud hanging over the team. There's the fact that, since 2000, we've had some really good regular seasons turn into awful endings. The World Series of 2001 and 2003. The AL Championship Series of 2004, 2010, 2012, 2017 and 2019. The AL Division Series of 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2011, 2018 and 2021. The AL Wild Card Game of 2015. And the AL Wild Card Series of "Bubble Year" 2020. And, of course, we missed the Playoffs completely in 2008, 2013, 2014 and 2016. Only 2009 was an unqualified success.
And the YES Network keeps putting up that graphic: Best record through (X) games, and of the top 5, other than the 2022 Yankees, the 5th, 4th, 3rd and 2nd teams all won the World Series, but the 1st team is still the 2001 Seattle Mariners, who lost in ignominious fashion before they could even get to the World Series. (Which was fun at the time.) But they're still hanging there, like the Sword of Damocles, or Banquo's Ghost.
There's 98 regular season games to go, and, at this point, they don't mean much. Pulling starters earlier than I would like is okay, as we need to rest their arms for the postseason. Occasionally resting Judge, at the risk of blowing his chance at the real single-season record of 61 home runs, is okay. It's not the 98 regular-season games left that matter: It's the 11 postseason wins we will need.
Until I see a bunch of Yankees celebrating on a pitcher's mound in late October, I'm going to remain skeptical.
Of course, if that's the way Yankee Fans feel, can you imagine how Met fans feel, no matter how good they look right now, given their 36-year title drought?
The series continues this afternoon. Jameson Taillon starts against Alek Manoah.