NY YANKEES: RIVALRY WEEK SERIES 3

NY YANKEES: RIVALRY WEEK SERIES 3

By: Matthew Blittner

5-2.

What's the significance of the above? It's the Yankees' record in their last seven games -- 1-2 against the Red Sox and 4-0 against the Mets.

What has been dubbed, "Rivalry Week," by the YES Network has turned into a three-series spectacle for the Bronx Bombers.

A win to kickstart Rivalry Week was followed by consecutive crushing defeats to the rival Red Sox and then a four-game sweep of the crosstown Mets.

As we ready ourselves for the third and final series of Rivalry Week there's a question that needs answering -- are the Yanks playing well?

A 5-2 record over seven games, on the surface, indicates that the team is playing well. However, if we dig deeper, we will find that the Bombers have been exhibiting the proverbial late-inning yipes.

A bullpen that was struggling to say the least, was revitalized by the trade deadline acquisitions of David Robertson and Tommy Kahnle. That is until closer Aroldis Chapman developed a case of blown-save-itis.

Once the best closer in baseball, Chapman has been a massive disappointment this season -- the first of a five-year deal -- and has seen his fastball swing-and-miss rate drop from 19% to 12%. His usually electric fastball has been MIA and his slider has been mixing more cement then missing bats.

Just a few hours away from the start of another series with the Red Sox -- this time in Fenway Park -- the Yanks have arrived at a crossroad in their season. A 1-2 or 0-3 mark in this series will essentially bury the Yanks' chances of winning the AL East Division crown. A 2-1 record -- which would be a series win -- would result in them being three games back of their rivals, with roughly five weeks left in the regular season. 

At this point in the season, you have to stick close to the team(s) you're chasing, and to be more than a series sweep back (3.0 GB) is, in essence, a death keel. Can miracles or collapses occur? Of course they can. But to count on one team collapsing is irresponsible, especially when both teams are evenly matched talent-wise.

This weekend's series in Fenway will, in all likelihood, determine the winner of the AL East. 

Under Major League Baseball's two Wild Card format, being a Wild-Card team is now detrimental to your playoff hopes. From 1995-2011, the team that won their league's respective Wild Card -- there was only one per league -- would simply face the team with their league's best record in the Division Series,  except if they were in the same division.

Under the new format, there is an added emphasis on winning your division as the two Wild Card teams from each league now face off in a one-game playoff to determine who advances to the Division Series. In a marathon season that is defined by its' length, a win-or-go-home one-game playoff completely flips that ideal on its' head.

The Yankees saw first-hand what the one-game Wild Card game is all about when they lost to the Houston Astros in 2015, despite hosting the game at Yankee Stadium. That experience alone should be enough to make the Bombers want to avoid the Wild Card game at all costs. And the way to doing that is to overtake the Red Sox in the standings, and that starts tonight!