Yankees Not the Best in Tight Races For all the American League and division titles in their glorious history, the Yankees were for decades seldom involved in a day-to-day, night-to-night pennant race that boiled down to the season's final weekend, if not the final game. When "the days dwindle down to a precious few - September," as Sinatra crooned, the Yankees long had a reputation for coasting to first place. In 1927, the year Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs, they won the A.L. pennant by 19 games. In 1936, when Joe DiMaggio was a rookie and Lou Gehrig was Lou Gehrig, they won by 19 1/2 games. In 1998, on the way to sweeping the San Diego Padres in the World Series for a record overall total of 125 victories, they won the division by 22 games. But now, as the Yankees duel the Baltimore Orioles, if not also the Tampa Bay Rays, for the A.L. East title after opening a 10-game lead July 18, a scary statistic haunts them, and should motivate them. When leading the league or the division by seven or more games during a season, the Yankees always finished first. There's time for the Yankees to pull away (or fade away and lose even a wild-card berth) before their three-game finale against the Boston Red Sox at the Stadium early next week. As they headed toward Monday night's opener of a three-game series in Minnesota, followed by a four-game visit to Toronto, they were 88-64, a game ahead of the Orioles. But recent September history provides another worrisome statistic. In their three close divisional races over the previous seven seasons, the Yankees twice finished second: two games behind the Red Sox in 2007 with the wild card assured, and one behind the Rays in 2010 with the wild card assured. In 2005, the Yankees finished first on a tiebreaker with the Red Sox after they posted 95-67 records. In between, the Yankees won the East by eight games in 2009 en route to their 27th World Series victory. But over more than a century, in 14 seasons when two or fewer games separated the Yankees from winning or losing a pennant in the final standings, they were the victors only five times. Of their four pennant triumphs by one game, the most theatrical developed in 1978 after the Yankees, once 14 games behind, and the Red Sox each finished with a 99-63 record. In a one-game playoff at Fenway Park, the Yankees won, 5-4, on Bucky Dent's three-run homer, Reggie Jackson's home run and Goose Gossage's relief pitching. The Yankees went on to win the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. On the final weekend in 1949, the Yankees swept a two-game series at the Stadium to edge the Red Sox by a game. In the World Series they defeated the Brooklyn Dodgers for the first of a record five consecutive titles under Manager Casey Stengel. In 1964, with Yogi Berra a rookie manager, they clinched a fifth straight A.L. pennant on the final Sunday in Cleveland; Mickey Mantle hit 35 homers and drove in 111 runs, and Whitey Ford had a 17-6 record with a 2.13 earned run average. When the Yankees lost the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals, Berra was fired, to be replaced by Johnny Keane, who had managed the Cardinals to the National League pennant. In 1922, the St. Louis Browns, with first baseman George Sisler on his way to a .420 batting average with 246 hits, challenged the Yankees, but on the final Saturday in Boston, the Babe bunted to load the bases and first baseman Wally Pipp's two-run single secured a 3-1 win that clinched the pennant. The Yankees lost the World Series to the New York Giants in four games (and a 3-3 tie halted by darkness). In 1952, the Cleveland Indians had the 20-game winners Early Wynn (23-12), Bob Lemon and Mike Garcia (each 22-11), but the Yankees prevailed by two games as Mantle, replacing DiMaggio in center field, hit .311 with 23 home runs. Allie Reynolds was 20-8 with a league-leading 2.06 E.R.A. The Yankees again defeated the Dodgers in the Series. In its second season, 1904, the New York team then known as the Highlanders had an opportunity to snatch the pennant from the Boston team known then as the Americans by winning a final-day doubleheader at old Hilltop Park in northern Manhattan. But the Highlanders lost the first game on the 41-game winner Jack Chesbro's ninth-inning wild pitch and finished one and a half games out. Five times the Yankees finished second by two games: in 2007 to the Red Sox (who went on to win their second World Series in four seasons), in 1997 and 1974 to the Orioles, in 1985 to the Toronto Blue Jays, and in 1924 to the Washington Senators, whose Walter Johnson was 23-7 with a 2.72 E.R.A. The Yankees also finished third by two games in a three-way race in 1940, when the Detroit Tigers nipped the Indians by a game. So history tells us that when a pennant race boiled down to the final weekend, past Yankees teams won and lost. But as the days and nights dwindle down this September, this Yankees team, like each of the others, will create its own legacy. For better or for worse. An earlier version of this article misstated how many games behind the Red Sox the Yankees were at one point in the 1978 season. It was 14, not 14 1/2.