“Sunday Night Baseball” on ESPN will feature the finale of the Subway Series. It’s a similar situation to when the teams squared off at Citi Field in early June. In that Sunday night sendoff, the Yankees lost a snoozer, 2-0, one of just two defeats all season in games Luis Severino has started.

One of the key reasons the Yankees recently dropped behind the Red Sox at the top of the AL East standings was a lack of results against non-contenders. Just a 2-2 split in Baltimore (5-5 for the season). Three straight losses at Tampa Bay not long before. There’s no margin for errors like that if Boston is going to keep playing at a championship pace.

Check out these pre-All-Star-break winning percentages (from baseball-reference.com):

Versus opponents .500 or better
Yankees: .670
Red Sox: .627

Versus opponents below .500
Red Sox: .766
Yankees: .634

The Yankees actually are better vs. top competition. But the Red Sox just crush losing teams, while the Yankees seem to lose intensity.

Those who like betting run lines, when you lay -1¹/₂ runs with more affordable vigorish, should be aware the Red Sox soared into the All-Star break on a 9-1 run against non-contenders that also went 9-1 when laying -1¹/₂ runs. All victories in that stretch were by two runs or more.

It’s something to think about as you handicap the series and season finale between Gotham rivals — and as you look at the Yankees schedule that sees 35 of the next 39 games after this series scheduled against non-contenders.

Boston set a standard that must be met. The Yankees can’t chase down the Sox from behind without domination of their most vulnerable opponents. Don’t bet the Yankees at high money-line prices unless you see a sense of urgency.

Jeff Fogle writes VSiN’s free daily newsletter covering the sports betting markets. Sign up at VSiN.com/ newsletter.