Late-game heroics help push the Yankees up the power rankings

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At the beginning of June, the New York Yankees saw Aaron Judge hit the IL with a stress fracture in his upper right rib. This was an injury he was playing with toward the beginning of the season, but it became too much to handle.

In years past, the Bronx Bombers would normally fall hard without their captain, but not this season. They have kept themselves in the thick of things in the American League East.

Last week, they had a tough schedule going into the All-Star Break, which could have spelled disaster, but they were able to rally and end the week on a high note.

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Late-game heroics help push the Yankees up the power rankings

The Yankees had two road series to wrap up before getting to rest and recharge during the All-Star Break. They took on their division rivals, the Tampa Bay Rays, in a four-game series before taking on the Washington Nationals in a three-game series.

They were able to split with the AL East-leading Rays before putting it on the Nationals. They got the sweep over the Nats, but they had to rally to do so, and with the 5-2 record, Bleacher Report's Kerry Miller bumps them up from No. 9 last week to No. 7 in this week's power rankings.

"New York's series in the nation's capital was the baseball equivalent of the 'They had us in the first half, not gonna lie' meme. In innings 1-7, the Yankees were outscored by a combined score of 8-4, trailing by either one or two runs in each game. But in innings 8-9, they smoked the Nationals' bullpen to the tune of a 10-0 advantage, winning each game in come-from-behind fashion. And for the week, Ben Rice went 11-for-26 with five home runs and the game-winning, two-run triple on Sunday."

With the sweep of the Nationals, the Yankees sit just three games back of the Rays. However, they have quite the test after the All-Star Break, taking on the Los Angeles Dodgers right out of the gate.