The New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays have officially leveled off in the win column in the American League East.

The Yankees are still in first place because of a superior 61-49 record (Blue Jays, 61-52), but the trend over the last two weeks has been obvious. Canada's lone team has been the hottest team in all baseball, and they are going all-out this year to end their 22-year playoff drought.

In the month of August, the Blue Jays are 8-1 while the Yankees are 3-5. The Blue Jays recently swept the Yankees at home to pull even at 61 wins. Possibly the biggest stat of all that no Yankee fan wants to hear is the head-to-head record between the two teams. The Yankees are a mediocre 2-7 against the Jays this season.

Most MLB fans and experts credit this huge shift because of what happened (and what didn't happen) at the trade deadline.

The Blue Jays had one of the best trade deadlines in MLB history. They made a huge deal with the Colorado Rockies to acquire Troy Tulowitzki. Tulowitzki hit a home run in his first game with the Blue Jays, and he's driving in runs. Although Tulowitzki has a great bat, the Blue Jays have the No. 1 ranked offense in the league, and they had to get a pitcher.

The Blue Jays made another big move just before the deadline, this time adding former CY Young pitcher David Price. Price has paid off big time for the Blue Jays thus far. In Price's two starts he has pitched a combined 15 innings while allowing just one run, which was a home run. Price pitched for the Tampa Bay Rays for seven seasons, so he's fully used to pitching in the AL East.

Let's not hand over the AL MVP award to Mike Trout just yet. Josh Donaldson has been playing outstanding this year after being traded from the Oakland Athletics. Donaldson leads the league in runs scored, runs batted in and plate appearances. Let's also not forget he did receive the most All-Star game votes this year. Dominican José Bautista hasn't been very consistent this year with a .240 batting average, but he's still displaying great power with 26 home runs.

As for the Yankees, they still control their own destiny, but they have to find a way to beat the Blue Jays going forward and improve their pitching.

While the Blue Jays had an incredible trade deadline, the Yankees failed to improve their roster in a major way. Trade rumors swirled that the Yankees could acquire Price, Johnny Cueto, Jeff Samardzija or even Mike Leake, but no such deal happened. Cueto eventually landed with the Kansas City Royals and Leake is with the San Francisco Giants.

The Yankees rank 17th in team ERA this season. That's not terrible, but it's costing the Yankees victories, and the Blue Jays have dramatically improved from 24th to 14th in team ERA. CC Sabathia (who is making $23 million this year) has an atrocious 5.34 ERA, and Masahiro Tanaka can't stay healthy enough to give the Yankees enough innings. Michael Pineda was recently put on the 15-day disabled list. Dominican starter Luis Severino had a very impressive debut for the Yankees, but at just 21 years old, only so much can be expected.

The Bronx isn't burning, but some doubt is starting to creep in. All of a sudden Alex Rodriguez is starting to look like a 40-year-old hitter past his prime, and the Yankees have been shut out in back to back games. This is the first time the Yankees were shut out in consecutive games since 1999, a span of 2,666 games. That was the longest streak in MLB history. The Yankees have scored just four runs in their last five games.

The Yankees and Blue Jays will play each other 10 more times this season. Their next meeting is a three-game series, which starts Aug. 14. That series will be played in Toronto.

Follow Damon Salvadore on Twitter @DamonSalvadore1