The New York Yankees are in the thick of things after taking two games against the Boston Red Sox over the weekend and after A-Rod was plunked in that game, a spark was lit under the team and now they are looking to get back in the Wild Card race in the American League, as they are just six games back after an 8-4 victory on Tuesday.
The team is opening a four-game series against the Blue Jays and after playing on Tuesday afternoon, the team is gearing up for another game on Tuesday night and it will be Mark Buehrle against Phil Hughes as the pitchers and the Yankees are hoping that Hughes can pitch well, as he is just 4-12 this season. The Yankees are six back in the wild card standings and right now they have a tough task, as rivals the Athletics and Rays are ahead of them.
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The Yankees are just behind the Orioles, Indians and right there with the Royals in the standings and to keep things going they desperately need to win again on Tuesday. Robinson Cano did his part with his 200th home run in his career and he fell a triple short of the cycle after going 4-for-4 and he drove in four runs on the day as well. Ichiro Suzuki is about to hit history, literally, as he will have 4,000 hits the next time he registers one after going 2-for-5 in the victory on Tuesday afternoon.
Suzuki has hits split between the MLB and Japan and he will be just the third player to have 4,000 after Ty Cobb and Pete Rose and it is quite the accomplishment after he had 200 hits in 20 straight seasons. The Yankees fell behind early 4-0 but were able to come back and Chris Stewart hit a home run and Ivan Nova did enough to earn his seventh win of the season.
The Yankees are 65-59 this season and are clinging to life in the playoff race and now they rank 18th in runs and 19th in batting average after a nice week from A-Rod and Alfonso Soriano as well as Robinson Cano and they rank 29th in slugging and 20th in on base. The team is playing well at the right time and they have a good chance to get back into the thick of things if they continue their strong play.