The combined record of the five teams in the AL East is 336-266, good for a winning percentage of .558.
It is a figure being brought down by the Yankees, who are at .500 this late in the season for the first time since they were 61-61 following their 122nd game on Sept. 6, 1995.
While the Yankees flail and hope for the best only to experience the worst in most games lately, the other four teams are enjoying a spirited sprint in the race to secure playoff positions.
Starting at the top, at 74-46 Orioles despite getting blown out last night are nine away from matching their 2022 win total. They have held the lead since July 20 when they started a four-game series against the Rays and won three of those games.
Two years removed from a third 100-loss season since 2017, the Orioles are also a strong possibility to maintain the best record in the AL. They last finished with the AL’s top record 1997 and are doing with the young core the Yankees hoped would be fully developed by now when they started implementing their slight rebuild in the summer of 2016.
Adley Rutschman, the first overall pick in 2019, is the catcher the Yankees hoped they’d see in the form of Gary Sanchez, who coincidentally hit his 16th homer Tuesday against Baltimore.
Ryan Mountcastle is the right-handed hitting version of what the Yankees hoped they were getting in Greg Bird, whose constant injuries derailed him. Gunnar Henderson may be hitting .237 but he is batting .296 against the Yankees and has a combined 34 RBIs against the Yankees, Rays and Blue Jays.
Sitting in second place is Tampa Bay, which is enduring a rough summer following its dominant start. The Rays won their first 13 games and were 31-11 after their first trip to the Bronx before ending June at 57-28 with a 6 1/2 game lead.
Since then, Tampa Bay is 15-22 and just lost ace Shane McClanahan to Tommy John surgery that will keep him out until 2025. McClanahan pitched four innings against the Yankees Aug. 1 and got hurt along the way, a day after the Rays acquired Aaron Civale to boost a rotation.
Despite the injuries to McClanahan, Drew Rasmussen and Jeffrey Springs, Tampa Bay still has a respectable 3.73 ERA from its starters, good for third in the majors.
And unlike the Yankees, the Rays have many good hitters with four regulars hitting .270. That includes Wander Franco, who may not play again this year pending the outcome of MLB’s investigation.
Sitting in third are the Blue Jays, who tore down the core of the 2015-2016 teams and began ushering in the youth in 2019 with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette along with Jordan Romano. While Guerrero is only hitting .264 with 18 homers and struggling at times since his quick start, the Blue Jays are getting enough things done with George Springer hitting .340 of late and a team ERA of 3.68.
After missing the playoffs in 2021 and firing manager Charlie Montoyo, the Blue Jays are 113-82 under John Schneider. They are 10 games over .500 since the end of May and currently holding the third wild card with a chance to move up one or two spots while also fending off a challenge by the Mariners and Red Sox.
And there’s the Red Sox, who seemingly appeared like the mediocre group from last year and not the roster who surprisingly claimed home field advantage in the wild card game and reached the ALCS.
It is the latest in Boston’s odd trajectory at times. In 2013 they won an unexpected World Series and then finished last in the next two seasons. Then came three straight division titles including 2018 when they were the best team all year and won their fourth World Series title since the 86-year drought.
After slipping to 84 wins while the Yankees won 103 in 2019, the Red Sox were a disaster in the pandemic season after trading Mookie Betts. While Betts led the Dodgers to a World Series, seemingly one random player after another appeared for the Red Sox.
Then after last season, the Red Sox made no effort to retain Xander Bogaerts, who is hitting .272 with 12 homers and 40 RBIs in the first year of his big contract. The Red Sox earned some goodwill by making a franchise type investment in Rafael Devers.
The Red Sox are also a team who did not seemed headed to contending status in June. They were two games under after getting outscored 18-3 in a three-game sweep by the Marlins. Since then they are 23-16 and 6-2 in their past eight since getting swept at home by Toronto.
As for the Yankees, barring some similar turnaround to the 21-6 finish they authored in 1995, they seem headed for last and the run of winning seasons could be in jeopardy. It is not just the losses but the way they have lost with an ugly five-run collapse on Sunday being followed up by two tough showings in Atlanta, an 11-3 blowout and getting one hit in a 5-0 loss.
Besides their flailing offense which in the words of Aaron Judge did not show up, they are totally unprepared in the rotation beyond Gerrit Cole. Injuries to Nestor Cortes and Carlos Rodon and Domingo German entering rehab for an alcohol problem along with Luis Severino’s drastic ineffectiveness led the Yankees to start openers in three straight games which is quite astounding even in the era of frequent bullpen games.
While nothing is set in stone now, the AL East appears to be a division who is surging while possibly leaving the Yankees in the dust to figure out how their season went drastically off the rails.