CHICAGO — When the Yankees woke up sometime around midday Monday, rubbed the sleep from their eyes and tried to shake off the hangover of a lost weekend at Fenway Park, a new reality had dawned.
For the last two or three months, the Yankees kept one eye on the standings and the position of the Boston Red Sox, as the two rivals consistently jockeyed for the best record in baseball.
But after a four-game sweep by the Red Sox, punctuated by a midnight collapse in Sunday’s finale, the Yankees find themselves looking not only off in the distance at the surging Red Sox — who held a nine-and-a-half-game lead entering Monday night — but also studying the rearview mirror.