BALTIMORE — The door is ajar.
Not, “Come on in, the party’s just getting started!” Not even, “Sure, what the heck, we’ve still got some time.” More like, “We’re throwing everyone out in a half-hour.”
Nevertheless, ajar, for these Yankees, constitutes progress.
The Red Sox’s long-awaited speed bump hit this week, just as the Yankees were taking no pity on baseball’s worst team, the Orioles. When the Rays completed a three-game sweep of baseball’s best team Sunday at Tropicana Field, the Bosox going down by a 9-1 score, the Yankees (82-47) closed within 6 ¹/u2082 games — five in the loss column — of their historic rivals, who are 90-42, in the American League East, entering their series finale with the Orioles on Sunday night.