The New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles are in a tight race for the American League East. Juan Soto and the Bronx Bombers lost on Tuesday to the Kansas City Royals 5-0. Meanwhile, the Orioles took care of business at Fenway, beating the Red Sox 5-3. After the game, Soto was asked if the Yankees are watching the scoreboard during these important games.

“We're not paying attention to that, we're really focused on what we can do here. We're trying to win games and that's all that matters now. We don't care what they do, win or loss, good for them but we're focused on what we can do every day here,” Soto said in his post-game press conference.

The Yankees' right fielder continued in response to a question if he is feeling extra pressure, “Not at all, I mean we've been playing really good baseball all year long. I think we've just gotta keep doing the same thing, try to relax, put ourselves in a good spot to finish the season…”

Soto certainly said all of the right things in these answers. The Yankees should be focused on their own game considering how poor their record since June. The Yankees are 42-43 since June 1 but thankfully for them, the Orioles are only one game better. Despite Soto and Aaron Judge having MVP-caliber seasons, they have not pulled away in the AL East.

The Yankees have already passed their win total from last year when they won just 82 games and missed the playoffs. Their first two months made it mathematically difficult to miss the playoffs and the rest has been just okay. Fangraphs gave them a 99.4% chance of making the playoffs on June 1 and currently has them at 100%.

Yankees and Orioles to battle down the stretch

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The Yankees and Orioles play a three-game series in The Bronx starting on September 23. The series will likely determine who gets a bye and potentially home-field advantage in the American League playoffs. While the series is still two weeks away, the team has already begun planning for it.

On his weekly appearance on Jomboy Media's Talkin' Yanks podcast, manager Aaron Boone revealed the starting rotation schedule. With injuries and rehab starts, the Yankees have a jumbled mess to sort through in the upcoming days. After describing how he would do so, Boone revealed that Gerrit Cole is on track to start in the Orioles series. That was not originally how the calendar fell, but the manager made some adjustments to get his best pitcher in that spot.

The key to the series is making sure that Aaron Judge and Juan Soto are in stride by the time it comes around. Judge is close to breaking his record of games without a home run. And Soto has struggled recently in right field and has not hit a homer since September 4.

The recent surge that put them back in first place is thanks to Austin Wells. The rookie catcher hit a massive three-run home run on Monday night to win that game and has been great behind the plate. If Judge and Soto can get back on track with Wells going like this, the Yankees will hit their stride at the perfect time.