The Yankees opened the season in Toronto and played the Blue Jays seven times overall in April, but haven’t faced their division foes since. A lot has changed in the interim. The Yankees scuffled over the season’s opening few weeks but soon caught fire. The Blue Jays started off strong but have faded, and now sit 10 games out of a playoff spot.
This is just a two-game set, but sweeping it away from Toronto could push them further from contention and towards selling. In delivering early-season knockouts to their divisional opponents, the Yankees could kill a couple birds with one stone: not only can they boost their own record, but spurring their division rivals to tear down prior to the trade deadline can help soften the Yankees’ brutal schedule.