Yankees Maintain Comfortable Wild Card Lead After Sweeping Twins

The New York Yankees have won eight of their last 10 games after sweeping a three game set from the Minnesota Twins at Yankee Stadium. New York now holds a seven game lead over Minnesota for the top Wild Card spot.

The Yankees are heating up at the right time, but remain three games behind the equally as hot Boston Red Sox for the American League East Title. The Red Sox completed a sweep of the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday and have won seven of their last 10 games to maintain their lead over the Yankees.

Each team has 10 regular season games remaining.

The Yankees hit the road for their final regular season series away from Yankee Stadium this season as they battle the Toronto Blue Jays. After the three-game trip, they will return home to play one game (a makeup from an earlier rain out) against the Kansas City Royals before hosting the Tampa Bay Rays for three. They end the regular season with three games against the Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium.

The Red Sox however will also have seven of their final ten games take place at home at Fenway Park. Boston travels to Cincinnati for a three-game set with the Reds beginning tonight before returning home to face the Blue Jays (3 games) and Houston Astros (4 games).

Both Boston and New York have identical 46-28 home records this season.

The Yankees magic number for a playoff berth is four heading into Thursday’s off day.

Masahiro Tanaka will take the mound for the series opener in Toronto, followed by Sonny Gray on Saturday. The Yankees hope to continue their hot hitting and give the starting pitchers some run support.

Jacoby Ellsbury has been one of the teams hottest hitters, batting .455 in the last seven games, with four doubles, a triple, six walks, and three stolen bases. Fellow outfielders, Brett Gardner and Clint Frazier are also over .420 in the last seven games.

Aaron Judge and Didi Gregorius have each hit four home runs in the past seven games and are batting .348 and .320 respectively during that time.