How Yankees' remaining schedule could be a huge advantage over Orioles in tight AL East battle

The intradivision rivals are currently tied for first in a fight that seems poised to go down to the wire

By Dayn Perry Aug 5, 2024 at 12:47 pm ET• 3 min read

The New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles are presently tied atop the American League East standings with, tidily enough, identical 67-46 records. Given that the third-place Boston Red Sox are 6 1/2 back of this tandem, the division crown will almost certainly go to the Yanks or the O's.

Those tight-as-can-be margins duly noted, let's also remind ourselves that under the current format the stakes are high for best of division winners. That's because the Nos. 1 and 2 seeds in each league – i.e., the teams with the top two records among the three division winners in a given league – get first-round byes. In the AL this season, that's almost certainly going to be the AL East winner and the AL Central winner. In other words, the Yankees and Orioles right now are not only jousting for AL East harrumphing rights but also the privilege of not having to play in the wild-card round of the playoffs. 

Given what is to be gained and lost in the AL East race and given that first-place tie, it's worth exploring every possible x-factor in this race. That brings us to the differences – crucial differences, possibly – in the Yankees' and Orioles' remaining strength of schedule. Let's explore that now. 

Going into Monday's slate, the Orioles and Yankees each have 49 games remaining, and those 49 games are spread across 16 series with seven off days for each team mixed in. Now for the specifics of each team's schedule across the remainder of the 2024 regular season (each series is listed in sequential order with the number of games in parentheses):