The Yankees have managed to silently be only 2.5 games behind Boston with Tuesday night’s win against Seattle.  They have won 6 in a row including a series win in Atlanta and a sweep in Queens and show no signs of slowing down anytime soon. The pitchers are performing, the hitters are ALL hitting, and the bullpen is holding leads—barely—but still holding.

The most impressive thing about this last string of wins is that they won on the road and not in come-from-behind fashion. They had leads early(ish) in each game and held on to them. These early leads helped build the pitchers confidence giving them enough swag to pass a lead over to the bullpen resulting in victories. All cylinders were firing from the start until the end of each game.

Wang got his first win of the season and looked pretty solid. Almost like he was back to normal…almost. His sinker still wasn’t blowing people away or dropping the jaws of opposing players but it was strong enough to record some outs.  He threw 85 pitches in 5.1 innings and only allowed 2ER. The worst part about his start was how early they pulled him out. He’s not injured and needs a confidence boost so I don’t see why Girardi doesn’t wait to see if he can get out of the 5^th. 

I understand getting his ERA below 10.00 is a marathon and not a sprint (considering the past 3 months) but I still think Girardi baby’s his pitchers. We have 6 starters (counting Hughes) and only half of them are “allowed” to smell the dirt and grass passed the 5^th inning.  Just as Torre would abuse his relief Girardi comforts his Starters. He’s like a father walking his son to school on his first day of 9^th grade. Come on Joe; let them be men.

Hitting during this win streak has been a team affair. From Gardner’s 5-hit game to Mariano Rivera recording his first ever RBI. Everyone is picking up the slack when needed and all seem to be coming up with the hit when they really need one.  Even A-Rod looked decent raising his Batting average 20 points in a week. They are going to need to continue to hit as a team if they want to keep this streak alive and try to regain the division lead before the All-Star break.

Andy Pettitte and CC Sabathia are both going for their 8^th win of the season and should get it considering it’s against the Mariners at Home.  That would give the Yankees their second sweep in as many chances and set them up nicely to host Toronto over the holiday weekend.

Speaking of, Roy (Halladay, I couldn’t help myself) will start Saturday’s game against Wang. This will be a true test for Wang in the comfort his own home field.  A good outing here would possibly give him his second win of the season and bring his ERA below 10.00 for the first time since April.  If Wang can get back to his 38-wins-in-two-seasons caliber that would give them one of the strongest starting rotations in baseball—matching their pre-season expectations.

What is key for the Yankees to continue their success is, to quote a cliché, to take it one game at a time; especially for head cases like Wang and A-Rod. If you get those guys thinking too much and playing too little then the Yankees will find themselves with two All-Star players that need counseling. The Yankees have to treat the next two weeks of baseball like a hard ground ball they hit up the middle: put your head down, ignore your surroundings and get to first base.