The Yankees are trying to crush some hopes and dreams. Again.

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Ever since the Toronto Blue Jays seized the attention of all of baseball with their impressive trade deadline dealings, the buzz surrounding the bluebirds from up north has been incredible. Attendance has spiked, attention is being paid in full and the wins have been piling on. As a matter of fact, Toronto had won 11 straight games going into Friday night, but that streak came to a screeching and abrupt halt at the hands of everybody’s favorite villain: The New York Yankees.

This is the same Yankees team that the Blue Jays swept in New York last weekend with the greatest of ease, but do not be mistaken: New York isn’t just going to lie down for their Canadian adversaries. These are the Yankees we’re talking about here. If there’s any sports franchise on the face of the Earth that takes happiness and joy out of crushing the hopes and dreams of franchises like the Blue Jays, it’s the Yankees. Carlos Beltran coming off of the bench to hit a three-run homer in the top of the eighth inning to silence a large crowd at the Rogers Centre is a classic example of typical Yankees dream-crushing.

It’s still mid-August, so there’s plenty of baseball to be played. That means that the Blue Jays still have yet to lock the division down, and that also means that the Yankees aren’t dead just yet. Last night’s game was proof of that, and they both still have nine games left this season to play against each other. If last night’s contest is any indicator, then we’re going to have an absolute dogfight for the AL East crown on our hands. It seems rather proper that in order for the Blue Jays to shake off nearly two decades of divisional mediocrity, they’ll have to topple the the Yankees themselves. This should be an extremely entertaining race, folks.