Now eight up in the loss column, Yanks have no excuses against big-spending Boston

It's not even June, so I cannot fathom the words I'm about to type:

This weekend could settle the AL East. 

More or less, anyway.

Yes, yes, yes, of course I'm overstating this. Commonly, a week after one of these "historic clashes," everything's been forgotten. The team that won the big weekend flies to KC and loses three straight, negating the gains that seemed so critical. It's a long season. And it's May. But let's think of extremes:

A Death Star sweep would knock the big-spending Bosocks back below .500, where they'd feel the hot Labatt's breath of Toronto on their pimply necks. Their bullpen problem would prod the front office to take action, though the easiest solution - signing Craig Kimbrel - would unleash the talk radio hounds of hell upon management.  

But a sweep by Bitcoin Boston would kick us squarely in the billiards, stripping the veneer from our Cinderella lineup, and reminding everyone, once and for all, that they remain the best team money can buy. We would still have a raft of returning stars, and a four-game lead in the division, but how would we ignore a sense that the no-names, who carried us throughout April-May, have reached their sell-by dates in June? 

Of course, a 2-2 split will unleash the forceful certainty of a Robert Mueller address following Pear Harbor ("Yesterday, December 7, a date that will live in infamy, something happened that I'm not at liberty to disclose, because it wasn't in my job description...") Everyone will claim victory, except the Baltimore Orioles. Among Republicans and Democrats, they'll remain America's lone unifying subject: They stink. 

But let's be clear: We have no excuse to settle for anything less than a 3-1 beat-down. We are streaking (8-2 over the last 10). We are healthy (if you view our regulars as Gio Urshela, Clint Frazier and Thairo Maybin, which I do.) Our bullpen is rested (thanks to Jonathan Holder and Nestor Octavio-Cortes Jr.) We are home, where Luke Voit yesterday notched his first MLB triple. Look at that happy man, standing at third.

Big-spending Boston, on the other hand, just put Mitch Moreland, their leading HR hitter, on the IL. They have no bullpen, running a closer-by-committee. Out of pride - and the public humiliation it would bring their front office - they cannot re-sign Kimbrel. A setback this weekend won't push them out of the pennant race, but it could force their hand in the upcoming trade wars, which will make Trump's tariff feud with China look like a salt water taffy weekend in Cape May. 

It's easy to overstate the significance of these confrontations. But I was wrong upstairs. This weekend begins in April-May. It ends in June-July. The war is upon us.