Will Josh Donaldson's walk-off grand slam be Yankees' turning point in second half?

Say what you want about the Yankees, their season as a whole and how they still own a substantial lead in the AL East. 

They needed the baseball gods to look down upon Josh Donaldson with the bases loaded and no outs in the bottom of the 10th inning. They needed that walk-off grand slam more than just about any team in baseball. 

Before that moment, when Rays C Francisco Mejia cue-balled an Aroldis Chapman 101 mph fastball with the bases loaded to make it a 7-4 game in the top of the 10th, it appeared the Yanks were going to be swept by their division rival, have their lead diminished to eight games and ultimately lose their 12th game in their last 15. 

So when Donaldson pimped that high fly to deep right field inside the foul pole, shrugging his shoulders might not have just been for show. It could be viewed as him throwing the weight of this Yankees slump off his shoulders for the entire team. 

"Obviously we've scuffled here as of recent, but we've been having quality at-bats for the better part of the year," Donaldson told reporters after the game. "Obviously that's why we've won a lot of games. I think that's just who we are. I think that inning is just who we are as a team."

Anthony Rizzo, who walked to set up the bases-loaded situation for Donaldson, added: "It feels nice just the way we won. That's really the team we've been for the most part of this year. Just feels good."

We may look back at this being the turning point of the Yankees' season, getting back to their first-half identity and cruising to an AL East title.

It all depends on how they respond to this improbable win moving forward.

Because when you look back at this game, we see situations that have been costing the Yankees, like Gleyber Torres swinging at the first pitch in the bottom of the seventh with the bases loaded and one out, resulting in a double play to kill a rally. Aaron Judge had walked on four pitches in the previous at-bat to make it a 4-3 game. The Yanks could've pulled away in that situation if he were more patient.

Going back to Chapman, while Mejia's hit could be viewed as some bad luck, he had a four-pitch walk to Isaac Paredes and a walk to Taylor Walls to load the bases before that happened. With Clay Holmes on the IL now, the Yankees can't afford for him to regress to the wildly inconsistent reliever he's been. Chapman actually looked good prior to this appearance.

You could even make the argument that Aaron Boone's call to pinch hit Aaron Hicks for Isiah Kiner-Falefa, when Hicks has been struggling mightily this month, wasn't the right managerial call to make. But Hicks, from the left side of the plate, worked the count and almost produced a walk in the bottom of the ninth, which is likely what Boone was thinking. Can't blame him for that when Kiner-Falefa was already 0-for-3 on the night with a strikeout.

Though those moments are reminiscent of what's been happening to the Yanks, there were some clutch at-bats that kept them in the game in the first place. As much as Torres dropped the ball in the bottom of the seventh, he hit the Yankees' first homer in quite some time in the inning before, making it a 4-2 game.

Rizzo's bomb in the bottom of the eighth was even more clutch, as it tied the game at four. The Bombers haven't been bombing the ball lately, or more importantly, having those game-changing at-bats. Pitchers have been throwing around Judge and letting others try to beat them. It's a strategy that has worked for many teams.

Will that strategy work for the Toronto Blue Jays, who head to the Bronx for a four-game series starting Thursday night? They've been struggling as well, losing seven of their last 10 games. So why wouldn't they test what teams like the Rays, St. Louis Cardinals, Seattle Mariners and Boston Red Sox have been doing?

Like why we mentioned, it all comes down to how the Yankees move forward.

Do they use that triumphant moment as a trampoline to get out of the crippling depths of baseball despair?

Or was this just a breather for the Yankees, a moment of good fortune when they were "in the jaws of defeat," like Michael Kay said during the broadcast?

Like Donaldson reminded everyone, that moment is what the Yankees had been for most of the season. They just need to show it more here in the second half to prove to everyone that first half was no fluke.