Yankees must show they are a real playoff contender over this next stretch

Watch Yankees must show they are a real playoff contender over this next stretch - New York Post on Dailymotion

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00:00Yeah, let's take Aaron Boone and his word. It's all out in front of them. It really is.

00:04There's five teams within three and a half games atop the American League. Five. The Yankees are

00:10one of the five. They play the other four teams now for the next 12 games. I used to love when

00:19Jeff Van Gundy did the national NBA games. I always felt I learned something, but he had a

00:23saying I loved all the time. You know, somebody would ramble on about like, oh, this guy told me

00:29he really wants this game and whatever. And Jeff Van Gundy would go, don't tell me, show me.

00:35Like, we're all experts at basketball. I'll know if you're playing hard and you care about winning

00:40or not. Like, don't tell me you're playing hard. Play hard. We'll know you're playing hard. You

00:44don't have to talk about it. And at this point, you know, the Yankees, one of the things they

00:50like to talk about is how tough minded they are. And I would like to see an iota of proof

00:55that they're tough minded. They have another 12 games to prove that. Over in the Aaron Judge

01:02era since 2017, whenever they faced an opponent that is as good or better than them, talent

01:11wise, they fall apart pretty much. The playoff record is pretty clear. They played seven AL

01:17Central teams in the playoffs. They're seven for seven. The other eight series, they won

01:21a wildcard game against Oakland. We might as well be in the AL Central. I guess they're

01:26moving closer and closer. They went from Oakland to Sacramento. They'll move to Vegas. I guess

01:31if there's realignment, they might end up in the AL Central. The other seven series, you

01:37know, when they play Houston, Boston, Tampa Bay, Los Angeles, the Dodgers, etc. They're 0-7.

01:43They're 10-25 in those games. This year, there's 12 teams in playoff position. The team with

01:50the 11th best record against the other teams in playoff position are the New York Yankees

01:55at 23-30. By the way, three of those games are against the Brewers to open the season

02:00when the Brewers had eight of their pitchers not available to them. Six were on the injured

02:05list. One was suspended. And Jose Quintana had signed too late to be ready. So the Yankees

02:09torpedo bat. Remember, that was a big story. Beat the hell out of an overmatched team.

02:14They started the season 3-0. They're 20-30 against playoff teams since then. 20-30.

02:21You could paint it a million different ways, but they have 12 games now. It's all out in

02:27front of them. At the end of these 12 games, they literally could be the number one seed

02:32in the American League like they were last year. They could be atop the AL East. They could,

02:40if none of those things, have firmly established they're the number one wildcard team. Or they

02:47could have a two and 10 two weeks. And we're talking about, can they hold off the Rangers

02:53and Royals? And so it's all out in front of them. And Boone had taken recently to saying

03:02everything is words. We have to do it. 2025 has not been a season where they have done it

03:08against good teams. And essentially during his entire tenure, which started the second year

03:13of the Judge Era 2018, when they face a good team, his team is not as tactically strong or

03:21mentally strong as these other teams. Don't tell me. Show me.