Of course neither the Yankees nor the Red Sox are in first place as they begin a four-game series on Thursday night at the Stadium. Somehow this still feels like the beginning of an abbreviated

Meanwhile, Max Scherzer turned in yet another strong start for the Blue Jays as he rounds into form late in the year. He went six innings, allowing just a single run in the bottom of the second when he loaded the bases with no outs but managed to only get dinged on an Isiah Kiner-Falefa groundout that moved the runners up.

Boston sits one game behind New York for the top wild-card spot and trails the Blue Jays by six games for the division. The Red Sox need a momentum swing after three straight losses to sub-.500 teams in the Miami Marlins and the New York Yankees.

New York finished with five home runs Wednesday night and 14 in the series sweep of the Rays, tying a major league record (Reds, 1999) for most homers in a two-game series.

The Yankees enter Tuesday five games back of the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League East, and tied with the Seattle Mariners and the Boston Red Sox atop the AL Wild Card standings.

According to Bryan Hoch of MLB .com, that makes the Yankees the first team in Major League Baseball history with multiple nine-homer games, period. The fact that they did so twice in the same season is the type of baseball oddity that makes the game so fun to watch.

After a lengthy rain delay, Giancarlo Stanton hit two home runs and the Yankees matched a franchise record with nine long balls Tuesday night in a convincing 13-3 victory over the Rays, an effort the slugger labeled as "awesome to see.

Ahead of the matchup, manager Aaron Boone met with the media and shared several key updates—most notably on superstar Aaron Judge, who recently returned from an IL stint after tweaking his elbow while throwing from the outfield.