Yankees with big task to take care of this weekend against Indians

It’s not exactly the “good ol’ days” of the AL East when the Yankees and Red Sox not only jockeyed for supremacy of the division, but for the best record in baseball.

The division is competitive, but far from great.

The Tampa Bay Rays are the only team in the division that has zero shot at the postseason as we enter the final weekend of play of the first half of the 2016 season but the Orioles, Blue Jays, Red Sox and Yanks are all in the mix.

The Yankees (41-43) have the difficult task of taking on the red-hot Indians in Cleveland this weekend. New York desperately needs to save face before the All-Star break if it is to avoid joining the Rays in the division basement for the rest of the season. The Yankees are currently eight games behind first-place Baltimore and five games behind third-place Boston.

Chad Green (1-1, 4.09 ERA) will get the ball for the Yanks Friday night with C.C. Sabathia (5-6, 3.48 ERA) going Saturday and Masahiro Tanaka (6-2, 3.12 ERA) slated to go Sunday afternoon.