Healthy Yankees have little excuse not to win it all this year

Aaron Judge walloped his 56th home run, followed immediately by the obligatory “M-V-P” chants, if only mildly and briefly this time. No one needs convincing anymore.That individual race is decided now. Royals wunderkind shortstop Bobby Witt Jr.

is a terrific all-around player.But Judge is putting together an all-time season. Yankees manager Aaron Boone, while mentioning that other guys are having “unbelievable” years, correctly pointed out Judge is “another level.” Those other unmentioned guys — presumably Witt Jr.

and Judge’s teammate Juan Soto — are MVP worthy with their numbers in another year, but this year Judge is again racking him numbers like a video game champion. Over the last half century, the only player to post a higher OPS plus than Judge’s 221 heading into Tuesday is Barry Bonds, and his medicinal forays took him to another planet. Anyway, the MVP derby isn’t what’s concerning us at the moment. The AL East race, very close to decided, as well, lives another day.The Orioles delayed the inevitable with their 5-3 victory at Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees’ magic number remains one. Truth be told, that’s really over, too, though technically not just yet.That isn’t the competition that matters, either. MVPs are wonderful, division titles are nice.

But the real goal remains the whole enchilada, which seems well within their reach this time. Some years it’s OK to fall a round or two short.Not this year, not the way they are playing, the way they are set up, and not the way they are feeling physically. Not this year, not the way the rest of the league looks. These Orioles are missing four starting pitchers, including rotation men 2A (Grayson Rodriguez) and 2B (Kyle Bradish). The Guardians are a nice story, but they have about one-third the payroll.  Sign up for Inside the Yankees by Greg Joyce, exclusively on Sports+.

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