This is boring stuff.

This is the third year in a row where the Yankees hit September with a mediocre team and lost lots of games and conducted lots of postgame press conferences explaining how they're not mathematically eliminated.

In this September to Remember, the Yankees got bombed by Toronto, they lost to Baltimore, they squeaked by the Rays. They're all big games, in theory.

Girardi promised this part of the season was going to be easy because his team wouldn't have to travel too much from the Eastern Time Zone, which sounds like a Program Director at a nursing home rallying his troops to the early bird special at the local Golden Griddle.

Their "strong hold" on the Wild Card is 4 games.

But they think they can catch Toronto, who's up by 4.5.

The Yankees look at the schedule and think that they're going to cruise through Boston and Chicago and Baltimore. Does it ever occur to anyone that Boston and Chicago and Baltimore and the Mets and the Blue Jays look at their upcoming schedule and consider the Yankees a soft spot?:
 

"The Yankees now trail the Toronto Blue Jays by 4.5 games in the American League East, their biggest deficit of the season. Yes, they still have a strong hold on the Wild Card (4.0 games) but 16 games remain in the season, and nothing's guaranteed.

Plus, the Wild Card, Girardi's said all year, is nothing he's too interested in, considering it's a do-or-die, one-game playoff.

That means Saturday, Game 2 of the Subway Series, is as important as any game this season. The Yankees surely don't want to drop the fist two games against the Mets, then face a sweep, and Matt Harvey, on Sunday followed by three games in Toronto starting Monday."

Girardi will change his tune about the wild card when his team is 11 games back of Toronto.

"The Wild Card is an opportunity we played hard for all year."

The Wild Card is dreadful for MLB. Teams like this don't deserve second chances in the playoffs.