By Eddie Castro
September is here. The 90-degree days and Pina colada days will be replaced with Fall leaves and Pumpkin Spice flavored products. For the New York Yankees, September is going to be a very pivotal month for the team as far as where they will stand in the playoff picture.

The team’s offense has gotten better to go along with receiving length from their starting rotation albeit their recent 7-game winning streak featured some of the worst teams in the league. As we go to press, The Yankees will be tested this month especially the first games coming against teams who are expected to make the playoffs in the American League.

The team drew some luck during their seven-game winning streak as they’ve gotten closer to stealing the American League East crown from the Toronto Blue Jays who have struggled of late. Before the Yankees began their three-game set against the Washington Nationals, they were six games behind the Blue Jays for first place in the AL East and a game behind the Boston Red Sox for the first seed in the AL Wild Card.

After sweeping the Nationals and taking three out of for games against the White Sox, the Yankees are now a game up on the Red Sox for the first Wild Card spot and 2 ½ games behind Toronto.

Players like Giancarlo Stanton, Cody Bellinger, Jazz Chisholm and Trent Grisham have caught fire with their bats and have led the way for the Yankees winning ways of late. The scary part is that their best player Aaron Judge hasn’t really got going, but it is important to point out, he has hit a home run in three straight games so maybe that is a sign of another possible hot September for the captain.

In the month of August, the team hit a total of 59 home runs which marked the second-highest total for the month in franchise history.

The pitching has been dominant during this stretch with the starting rotation collectively pitching to an ERA of 1.33 which marked the best in baseball and posting a 6-0 record. The success as far as the pitching has been led by Carlos Rodon and their rookie pitcher Cam Schlittler. Rodon has been a stabilizing force for a rotation that has been decimated by injury.

Rodon was the catalyst that stopped the bleeding for the team salvaging the fourth game in a recent series against the Red Sox. He the followed up that performance with another solid one in Chicago. Cam Schlittler could possibly be the breath of fresh air the team has been looking for all season. In the first nine starts, Schlittler has posted an ERA of 2.61 giving up just one run in a 18.2 inning stretch striking out 24 batters.

The one big question that the team will be able to answer for Yankees fans is are they good enough to win the American League Pennant and return to the World Series? The next 12 games features three games against the Houston Astros, a huge three game set at the stadium against the Blue Jays, 3 against the best team in the American League in the Detroit Tigers and another 3 in Boston.

The team must prove that their offense can also be productive against the best teams in the league. The upcoming stretch will determine if the Yankees have a realistic shot to grab another AL East crown or them fighting for one of the three Wild Card spots. This time of year is usually where the best players step up. In this case, the man that wears No.99 for the Yankees will be right in the middle of whether this Yankee team is indeed for real. We shall see just what version of the Yankees will show up during the next four series.

Sports Notes: (Football) The NFL season is finally here! If you can’t wait for your New York teams to play on Sunday, you can catch the actual 2025-26 season Kickoff tonight as the defending Champion Philadelphia Eagles host the Dallas Cowboys tonight. The Jets will welcome back a familiar face as Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers head to MetLife stadium to battle the New York Jets in quarterback Justin Fields and Head Coach Aaron Glenn Jets debut. The New York Giants head to Washington to play the Commanders on Sunday afternoon.

Come get ready for the NFL kickoff season with me and tune in tonight for another exciting episode of Sports Talk With Eddie tonight at 5pm on the Our Time Press You Tube channel.