NEW YORK _ The Yankees are quickly making believers out of the AL East.
A month and a half ago, they were out of the race. Two weeks ago, they maybe had a chance at a wild card. Now the Yankees are a mere three games behind the first-place Red Sox with 18 of their next 21 games against AL East teams, so their destiny is in their hands. What once was inconceivable has become unmistakable: This team is for real.
The latest proof came in Saturday's 5-1 win over the Rays at Yankee Stadium. It was their seventh straight victory, their longest winning streak since 2013.
Masahiro Tanaka was masterful, pitching 71/3 innings, allowing one run, five hits and no walks. He struck out a season-high 10 and lowered his ERA to 3.04, third best in the American League.
Jacoby Ellsbury, who hit a two-run shot, and Gary Sanchez slammed back-to-back home runs in the sixth to give the Yankees a 3-0 lead. Sanchez drove in another run with a sacrifice fly in the eighth, which might not sound all that impressive except that it nearly was a home run _ and came on a 52-mph toss on a badly executed intentional walk.
The Yankees are 11 games over .500, building on what already was a season high. They have won nine of 11 and 13 of 17. They remained two games behind the Blue Jays for the first wild card, remained one game behind either the Orioles or Tigers for the second wild card and moved into a tie with the loser of Saturday night's Tigers-Orioles game.
The Rays threatened to break the scoreless tie in the sixth. After Logan Forsythe doubled to right and Nick Franklin sacrificed him to third, Evan Longoria's quick-sinking liner appeared to be either an RBI single or a sacrifice fly. Not so, thanks to Rob Refsnyder, who made a stumbling catch in right field and threw home quickly to prevent Forsythe _ who didn't tag up properly _ from scoring. Brad Miller grounded out to first to end the threat.
That left the door open in the sixth, when Brett Gardner led off with a single and Ellsbury jacked Chris Archer's 2-and-1 fastball over the scoreboard in right-center. Three pitches later, Sanchez did the same, blasting a 1-and-1 slider into the right side of the Rays' bullpen in left-center. It was his second home run in two days and the 13th in his short but memorable major league career.
Bobby Wilson's solo home run just eluded a leaping Gardner in the eighth to draw the Rays to within 3-1, and Tanaka hit the next batter, Forsythe, to end his day. Adam Warren nicked Nick Franklin to bring the go-ahead run to the plate with one out, but Longoria grounded into a 6-4-3 double play.
The Yankees got it back (and then some) in the eighth. Gardner led off with a single and Ellsbury hit a ground-rule double to leftfield to put runners in scoring position. Reliever Enny Romero attempted to intentionally walk Sanchez, but his first pitch appeared to be a very slow curveball that got a little too close to the strike zone, and Sanchez flied out to the centerfield wall to drive in Gardner and move Ellsbury to third. On the next pitch, Didi Gregorius' sacrifice fly made it 5-1.
