The Yankees, the AL East & Strength of Schedule

The Major League Baseball season is a grind. It's a 162 game marathon where even the best teams have their ups and they have their downs. Even the best teams can lose to the worst teams and you're only as good as your next day's starting pitcher. There comes a point in the season, and we're fast approaching this, where the year stops being a marathon and starts becoming a sprint towards the playoffs. The Yankees, the Toronto Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles are in a fight for not only the American League East Division but for one of the two available Wild Card playoff spots in the American League as well. The winner of these divisions and races when they are this close usually comes down to who is the hottest, the Blue Jays right now, and who has the most help by their strength of schedule, is that the Yankees?

As you can see the easiest schedule of the three goes to the Blue Jays while the Orioles have the toughest schedule. New York and Toronto have 10 more head-to-head match-ups while the Yankees and the Orioles face off just three more times. Toronto and Baltimore go at it six more times meaning this division is going to come down to those games head-to-head.