The New York Yankees have had a complete roller coaster of a 2013 season. It started with low expectations entering the season due to several injuries to key players.
Then the Yankees got off to a fast start in April thanks to a pair of players performing above their current abilities.
Vernon Wells batted .300 with six homers and Travis Hafner carried the Yankees with six home runs, 17 RBI and batted .316 in April.
That should have been exactly what the Yankees needed as they prepared for the return of several stars like Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira and Curtis Granderson.
All three ended up having some sort of a setback with Jeter and Teixeira's seasons finally coming to an end early.
The Yankees finished April six games over .500. Now, on September 17, and with only two weeks left in the regular season, the Yanks find themselves with only a two-win improvement to their record and two-and-a-half games out of the final wild-card spot.
The four months in between were a wild mix of winning and losing streaks. The Yankees have been crushed with injuries all season.
They have managed to withstand most of them to keep their playoff hopes alive.
Their longest winning streak of the season is six games back at the start of July. That winning streak followed their longest losing streak of five games to end June.
There was a low point during this season that most would agree was the event that dramatically changed the Yankees' season.
On August 7, the Yankees had just finished getting swept by the last-place Chicago White Sox with an extra-inning defeat.
Following the loss, the Yankees were only one game over .500 on the season heading into a three-game series versus the Detroit Tigers.
The Yankees won two of three, and that is when Alfonso Soriano welcomed the LA Angels to Yankee Stadium.
He treated them with back-to-back two-homer games, driving in at least six runs in each game.
A few days later A-Rod would get beaned in Boston, sparking another Yankees winning streak.
The Yanks went 11-3 over that two-week stretch in mid-August and have stabilized over the following month.
Now the Yankees enter the home stretch of the season and once again find themselves on a losing streak following a sweep.
One big final push could catapult the Yankees into the playoffs, but they would need a similar two-week stretch like the one in mid-August. 9-3 over the final two weeks should do it.
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