The Yankees Aren't Out Of This Playoff Race Just Yet

As they say, it's not over until it's over. Many of you might be able to argue that this season might actually already by over for the New York Yankees, but it you look at the facts in front of you, you might be able to ask, is it really over?

Well, the Yankees left Boston this weekend after and atrocious showing against the Red Sox, losing all three-games in the series, and being outscored by the Sox 22-7.

Yet, somehow, the Yankees "only" managed to lose one game to the Tampa Bay Rays, whom the Yankees now trail by three-games in the Wild Card. Even better, the Rays are actually tied with the Texas Rangers for the top spot in the Wild Card race, meaning the Yanks are just three games back of both of those teams.

Tonight in Tampa, the Rays and Rangers begin a critical four-game series at the Trop, with the first Wild Card spot, and possibly a playoff berth on the line.

With as well as the Kansas City Royals and Cleveland Indians are playing right now, you can almost write one of those teams into the playoffs if either the Rays or Rangers have their way this week.

Both Tampa and Texas has been playing sloppy baseball of late, but the only team playing worse than the Yankees did in Boston this past weekend is the Rangers, losers of six straight, and nine of their last 10 games.

Just as the Rangers did last season when they let the Oakland Athletics come all the way back to win the AL West last season, Texas is currently running themselves out of the playoff race again this season.

If the Yankees were to really make a run at this Wild Card, this would be their best chance to do so, as the Bombers are in Toronto for three-games starting on Tuesday, to face a Blue Jays team that the Yanks have owned this season.

Of their last 12 remaining games, the Yankees play nine of them against current last place teams -- three against Toronto, three against the San Francisco Giants, and three against the worst team in baseball, the Houston Astros to finish the regular season, with the other the three against the Rays next week in the Bronx.

"We've got 12 games to go, there’s no time to be concerned, we've got to go," Said Alex Rodriguez after Sunday's 9-2 loss. “You got to play as hard as you can and you never know, crazier things have happened, we just have to worry about getting back on a good winning streak on Tuesday.

"I know we are right in the mix, nothing that a two- or three-game winning streak can’t fix," A-Rod said. “If we go out and win four of the next five starting on Tuesday I think we are right back into this thing. If you take Boston away over the last two to three weeks, we've played really good baseball. Boston has done a number on us, they basically whipped our ass."

Right now, the Yanks would need to leapfrog over the Baltimore Orioles and Indians in order to grab a Wild Card spot. Cleveland's last 13 games are against Kansas City, Houston, the Minnesota Twins and the Chicago White Sox. They have the easiest schedule of all the contending teams.

The Orioles finish up with a tough 13 game fix against the Red Sox, Rays, Blue Jays and one more series against the Red Sox to end the season.

I'm not saying that it will be done, but it certainly can be done. The Yankees obviously have a ton of issues to sort through if they actually plan on making the playoffs -- with everything from injuries to terrible pitching, but I'll get into that later.

All I'm saying is that you shouldn't write off the New York Yankees just yet, because as we've seen in the past, anything can happen in these last few weeks.

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