Dead Heat
The Yankees went into the All-Star Break 5.5 games out of the wild card and with three teams above them in those standings. The standings still show them a game back, but they are even in the loss column. They have jumped ahead of Oakland and Minnesota and at worst they will only be three games behind Tampa for the division lead tomorrow morning. In addition, they have made a trade that will improve their chances in 2008.
I think the Red Sox have the easiest path to the playoffs of the three AL East teams (more home games/weaker opponents) but this is going to be a horse race. For a team that lost 60% of its rotation and probably has lost 2/9th's of its lineup, that's a great position to be in. This will be a fun race to the finish.
