ANAHEIM, Calif. -- The New York Yankees have lost 11 of their past 20 games and dropped four of seven on the road trip that ended with Wednesday afternoon's 3-1 win over the Los Angeles Angels.

And yet you look at the standings and there they are, in second place, a half-game behind the Baltimore Orioles, a half-game ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays and Toronto Blue Jays, and six games ahead of the Boston Red Sox, who even in a division as mediocre as this one don't seem to be able to keep up the less-than-brisk pace.

And you look at the roster and see that Ivan Nova is back in the starting rotation and pitching well. You look at the calendar and realize that Jacoby Ellsbury might be back by the weekend, and Andrew Miller could be back by the All-Star break, now only 12 days away, and the trade deadline, at which they will no doubt be buyers, is coming up at the end of the month.

And you look at the way Nathan Eovaldi pitched Wednesday and you think, damn, this team might be able to make some noise yet this season.

It all could be a mirage, of course, because there is still CC Sabathia holding down a rotation spot despite chronic ineffectiveness, and Stephen Drew playing virtually every day despite his .183 batting average, and Carlos Beltran and his cranky 37-year-old body being counted on to play right field, and you realize how many ways it can still all go wrong.

But a game like the one the Yankees won on Wednesday, coming at the end of a grueling stretch and leading into what could be an important homestand against the Rays and the Oakland Athletics, was the type that can give rise to mirages, which is another way of saying dreams.

As Yankees manager Joe Girardi said afterward, "Finishing up 3-4 is a lot better than 2-5."

It may not seem like much, but there is a huge difference between flying home cross-country, overnight, coming off a road sweep and coming off a victory.

This one wasn't the most stirring victory -- the Yankees still managed to score just five runs in the three games in Anaheim -- but there were elements that give you hope. For starters, there was Eovaldi, by the numbers the easiest starting pitcher in baseball to get a hit off of -- his opponents' batting-average against is an unsightly .310 -- and to reach base on. His WHIP is a bloated 1.54.

But there have now been three starts since that disaster in Miami, when he allowed eight earned runs before he could get three outs. At the time, it looked as though the trade that sent Martin Prado and David Phelps to the Marlins for Eovaldi and Garrett Jones would be remembered in Yankees history about as fondly as Jay Buehner for Ken Phelps.

On Wednesday, Eovaldi kept the Angels in the ballpark and off the board for 5⅓ innings. He allowed just five hits and pitched out of a big fifth-inning jam by getting a double play and a groundout after allowing singles to the first two batters of the inning.

Which brings us to Jones, who hasn't played enough to make much of an impact this season but, forced into action when Beltran went down with an oblique strain, had the most impactful Yankees hit of the game, a long home run in the sixth inning that gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead.

Chase Headley -- who was 2-for-22 on the road trip before Wednesday, when he went 3-for-5 -- knocked in the Yankees' first run with a single and handled the ball eight times at third base, although he needed the help of Mark Teixeira on the key play of the game, when the Yankees first baseman dug a bounced throw out of the dirt to end the sixth inning with the bases stinking with Angels.

There was Chasen Shreve, who hadn't allowed a run in all of June, starting off July the same way, and Dellin Betances, who has seamlessly assumed the injured Miller's closer role, nailing a four-out save despite putting the tying runs on base in the ninth with two walks.

Only Justin Wilson, who was as good as Shreve in June, spoiled the perfection of the day, but who could blame a pitcher who serves up a solo home run to reigning AL MVP Mike Trout in a 3-0 game?

All in all, it was the kind of win that sets the world right again, at least for the time being, but especially after two games in which the Yankees were limited to one run apiece.

"This was just a good game, and a good way to win a game before we go home," Girardi said.

When the Yankees started this stretch of games, they were in first place, a game ahead. But over the past three weeks, they lost a series to the Orioles, got swept by the Marlins in Miami, lost a series to the Phillies at home and lost two of three here. And what do you know? They're still only a half a game out.

"Well, it says our division's extremely close," Girardi said. "And I expect it to be this way the whole year."

“Obviously 4-3 would have been much better," Alex Rodriguez said. "But I think we battled and played in a lot of tough games. It's good to end this stretch and still be where we're at, going home to play our best baseball.”

And as much as the Yankees needed the win, they probably need Thursday's day off even more.

"After 20 days in a row and getting in at 7 [Thursday] morning," Girardi said, "It would be tough to play tomorrow."

For the first time in three weeks, the Yankees don't have to worry about that. Instead, they can dream about a second half in which the Al East is still up for grabs, and they are right in the thick of it.