There is the schedule. And the schedule within the schedule. That is when AL East teams face each other. Those 76 games, nearly half of the 162 on the slate, will determine who will win the majors’ toughest division.

In the past few years, the pathway to a division crown has been clear — win the season series against the teams that are trying in the AL East and just obliterate the one that is not. For those scoring at home, that would be the Orioles, who are in about Year 60 of what might turn out to be a century-long rebuild.

“Anytime you’re going within the division and with certainly a team that you know you’re going to be fighting for potentially a playoff spot in the division, yeah, they take on double meaning,” Aaron Boone said. “I would say they’re extra important. Even in April. Yeah. You always have the perspective of the whole season but, I would say anytime we’re with a division rival we treat that as doubly important.”

The Yankees reached the midway point of a 10-game, AL East-only spate to open their season Tuesday night by beating the Blue Jays 4-0. In the half-full world, they are 3-2 in that period against Boston and Toronto. In the half-empty, they are exhibiting many of the same offensive foibles that ensnared their 2021 in inconsistency.

Their attack once again is going as far as the ball off the bat. They have won the three games in which they have hit a homer and lost the two in which they did not. Aaron Hicks socked an opposite-field, two-run shot to put the Yankees ahead in the second, and Nestor Cortes Jr. and an airtight bullpen completed a shutout 24 hours after Toronto had blanked the Yankees.

Still, even in victory, the Yanks were 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position. For the season, they are 14-for-75 (.187) with men on base, 6-for-33 with runners in scoring position (.182) and hitless in 14 at-bats with runners in scoring position and two outs.

“I think if we stay healthy, we have a better [offensive] group, and that’s going to manifest itself [over the season],” Boone said.

Last season, the Yankees won 92 games and were a wild card, despite their offensive shortcomings, thanks to strong pitching. But what has been lost is fear and dread felt by opponents, especially in Yankee Stadium. There is no sense right now, like say in 2019 that the Yankees can just maul an opponent offensively.

The Blue Jays won eight of 10 games at Yankee Stadium in 2021 then the first meeting of 2022 Monday. They had outscored the Yankees 48-23 in those 11 Bronx games. That has been part of a growing sense from last year that Toronto is ready to win the AL East. In a way, it might be the Blue Jays’ turn.

In the past three full seasons (not counting the COVID-shortened 2020), the Red Sox, Yankees and Rays each have won the East, all in pretty much the same fashion. The division champ each time had a winning record against every other AL East team and obliterated Baltimore. The 2018 Red Sox were 52-24 in the division and 16-3 versus the Orioles; the 2019 Yankees were 54-22 and 17-2; and the 2021 Rays were 51-25 and 18-1.

Baltimore was a combined 6-51 in those games. The Yankees go to Camden Yards for their first road games of the season after completing this series against Toronto.

“You put yourself in a better position when you play better against these teams [in the division] early,” Gerrit Cole said.

Cole is scheduled to make his second 2022 start Wednesday against the Blue Jays. Cortes completed the first Yankees rotation turn with 4 ¹/₃ innings that suggest 2021 was not an Aaron Small cameo. He kept a strong Toronto lineup off-balance with different speeds and arm angles.

George Springer led off Tuesday with a double, but Cortes stranded him. Hicks then homered in the second, and the Yanks had scored first for the first time this year. There has to be lots more of that to win the AL East for just the second time in a decade.

The Yanks were 19th last year in runs while the Rays, Jays and Red Sox finished 2-3-4. The inability to score consistently led to one close game after another. The bullpen, in particular, proved deep and formidable and held up to allow the Yanks to narrowly (by one game) hold off Toronto for the final wild-card spot. The pen has been great again in 2022 (three earned runs in 27 ¹/₃ innings).

But that is a dangerous formula to try again in 2022 — to hope one relief link in the chain after another continues to excel and stay healthy. For the Yanks to return atop the AL East, they need to return at least near the top in runs scored.