At one point in early July, halfway through the six-month regular season, the Yankees were on pace to set a significant record. The two winningest teams in Major League Baseball history are the 1906 Chicago Cubs and the 2001 Seattle Mariners, both of which won 116 regular-season games. The Yankees were headed toward 119.
Then, their charmed season fell apart. Everything that went right in the first half — health, performance, wins — didn’t in the second. The Yankees recovered in September, won the American League East and finished the regular season in early October with 99 wins, but heading into the postseason, they simply weren’t the same.