Suddenly, the Yankees are Giant crushers

12:45 AM ET

NEW YORK — If you subscribe to the adage that all of us are as good as we are on our best days, then you must believe that the Yankees are a pretty good baseball team after all.

After all, over the past three weeks they have played nine games against first-place teams and won seven of them, and they have won eight of their last 12 games overall. Several of those wins rank among their best efforts of the season.

But if you think more along the lines of Bill Parcells — to wit, you are what your record says you are — then you still must harbor more than a few doubts about the legitimacy of the 2016 Yankees, or the integrity of their recent run of victories.

Their 3-2 win over the San Francisco Giants, leaders of the NL West, and their formidable ace, Madison Bumgarner, made for an entertaining night of baseball and arguably one of their best wins of the season. And yet, it left them a mere two games over .500 (49-47), their high-water mark of the season, a “pinnacle” they have reached three times this season, only to lose ground in the very next game.

By that standard, the Yankees are barely better than mediocre, and judging by their history this season, due to begin slipping backward again.

This is the dilemma GM Brian Cashman and owner Hal Steinbrenner must grapple with as the season lurches to the trade deadline on Aug. 1, before which point a decision must be made from the following three choices:

Do the Yankees attempt to fortify themselves for the stretch run by adding another piece or two to an unquestionably flawed roster? Do they run up the white flag and shed as many of the bloated contracts on their payroll as possible in exchange for prospects unlikely to do much for them this season and possibly not for several seasons to come, if ever? Or do they stand pat and play the cards they have, confident in the belief that the team they have seen since the final series before the All-Star break is the team the Yankees will be for the remainder of the season?

Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman can smile with Starlin Castro after escaping a shaky ninth with his 20th save. Mike Stobe/Getty Images

There was no champagne in the …

continue reading in source espn.go.com