Hour 1: NYY in Good Shape

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This is The Michael Kay Show Podcast.

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I gotta get more Kay.

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**Michael Kay** (0:41)
And a good afternoon, everybody. This is indeed The Michael Kay Show. We thank you for joining us on this Friday, June 19th, 2026 It's me and you for two. Those are the rules of engagement. It's the fastest two hours in Sports Talk Radio. Might be 120 minutes, but it's faster than any other 120 minutes. Hope you're all doing well and I want you to join in. You know the password 1-800-919-3776.
Because this is Friday and because it's an alliteration, I do want to remind you, it is a free for all Friday. The number 1-800-919-3776.
I want to talk to you. We have not talked a lot this whole week, and now everything is out there for you. It's an entire buffet on the table. What's on your mind? What do you want to talk about? The parade? The Mets win yesterday. The Yankees lost yesterday. It's all out there for you to choose and enjoy and delight in. I have the answers to everything. Everything. So dial in now 1-800-919-3776.
Well, we talked about this toward the end of the show yesterday. The Yankees are in really, really good shape. Really good shape.
Even without some of their best players. The best player in the American League is out. Aaron Judge, he's still going to be out for a while. John Carlos Stanton is out. Max Fried is out. Their center fielder, starting center fielder, Trent Grisham, who was red hot. He is out as well. Austin Wells on a rehab assignment. He's essentially their starting catcher. So they have lost a lot of the people that they planned to be part of this whole run. Still, they persevere. They're having a very, very good June. They've won seven of the last nine, even after losing yesterday by a 5-1 score to the White Sox. So they took two out of three to the White Sox. And that's good stuff, right? You win series, you're going to keep going more games over 500 So tonight, they start a three-game series against the Reds at the stadium. These are their next five series, ladies and gentlemen, Reds. Then they go to Detroit to face the Tigers. Then four games in Boston against the Red Sox. Then the Tigers come to town and play at Yankee Stadium, and they finish up this run against the Twins. It is low hanging fruit, everybody. Low hanging fruit. It really is.
The Yankees are in great shape to make the playoffs. I think it's important for them to win the American League East. Jed Hoyer, the president of Baseball Operations of the Cubs said, You've got to get a buy. Because what you essentially do is you win the first round without playing a game. And then in the second round, you're playing a team that's been compromised because they just had to play a best of three series. He's so right. He is so right. It makes things so much easier. When the Yankees got to the World Series in 2024, they didn't have to play a best of three. They had to buy.
Last year, because they lost a tie to the Blue Jays, they did have to play a first round series. And it was a really hard fought three game series against the Red Sox, where Cam Schlitler had to do something that no rookie had ever done before and pitch lights out and get them into the second round against the Blue Jays who sat there and watched as the Yankees tooth and nail battled the Red Sox. So they came in somewhat compromised as well. And then the Blue Jays took care of the Yankees. And guess what, the Blue Jays went to the World Series. So it's important that the Yankees do get the American League East and get the Wild Card or get the bye.
The team that wins the East is going to get one of the buys. I mean, take a look at the records of the teams in the West leading the West, the teams leading in the Central, it's right there.