NEW YORK -- You can't really blame the New York Yankees if they look around at the rest of the American League, and then at their own relentlessly mediocre record, and think, "You know what? We still got a shot at this thing."
It sounds silly, of course, especially because with just about half their season gone, the Yankees have lost precisely as many games as they have won. They sit 8½ games behind the division-leading Baltimore Orioles, who never seem to lose anymore, and need to climb over five other teams just to sneak into the second wild-card slot, which guarantees you nothing more than a single postseason game, and on the road, no less.