The Yankees showed the world that they are the best team in baseball this weekend as they swept the Red Sox in thrilling fashion. The four-game sweep puts the Yankees 6.5 in front of the American League East and gives them the best record in the major leagues.

The drunken cheers of “0-8” from overgrown boys dressed in green jerseys were silenced by the Yankee’s starting rotation. In the 4 games against the sAWks the Yankee starters combine for 27.1 innings pitched and only allowed 4 Earned Runs: that’s an ERA of 1.33 against one of the top teams in baseball.

The Home Run swing was shared by many in pinstripes this weekend and was honed in key spots. Damon, Tex, and A-Rod each homered twice in the series and Jeter, Posada and Melky added one a piece to the total. None were quite as exciting as A-Rod’s in the bottom of the 15^th of a scoreless game with 2 outs, but all were key in the rebuilding of the Yankee Swagger.

It would be bold to say that this was the best the Yankees have looked in years but I’d hesitate to say that’s not the truth. I can’t remember a Yankee squad of the past 5 years that has looked as good as this Yankee team did this past weekend. Everyone hit and everyone contributed on the offensive side of the ball. Except for Posadas base-running brain fart on Thursday (which he made up for by going 3-5 with 3 RBI’s and 2 runs scored), no one made any critical mental errors. The mental aspect of the game is especially important in a heated series’ with a good team and the Yankees realized this and played smart baseball all weekend.

Girardi has been quietly gaining the confidence of the fans and I must admit I like him more every game. He’s obviously no Joe Torre but he has been managing the Yankees confidently and has made good decisions in high-pressured situations. The best example of his managerial improvements has to be the way he used the bullpen this series, especially in the 15 inning marathon on Friday Night.

A manager gets graded rather strictly on the way he uses his pitching staff. Lately Girardi has been perfect. The staggered rotation so that Joba would start the sAWks series and get a couple extra days rest was a necessary move. But the way he’s been able to squeeze out victories using Mitre and Aceves is really encouraging from a fans’ standpoint. He doesn’t abuse his relievers like Torre used to and he has the confidence in the right guys at the right times.

This was evident Friday night where he managed to sparingly use Hughes who has turned out to be the new set-up man, and believed Bruney could keep the Bombers in the game for two innings despite his most recent reputation. And because Girardi managed to not use Aceves Thursday, he was able to look to Aceves for three innings on Friday night to keep the Yanks in the fight.

The bullpen gets deeper and deeper as the season moves along. This is not something that has been true for the Yankees lately. It has been well known through out the league that the Yankees bullpen the past couple seasons had been weak but the same can’t be said of this years squad. This year’s pen is reliable and exciting and keeps getting better. The better they get the scarier the Yankees are.

Toronto comes to town tonight and Yankees get to skip Halladay this time around as they face the Blue Jays for the second time in two weeks. Mitre gets the start tonight so you can expect some early action in the Yankees Bullpen considering Mitre hasn’t made it past the 5th in any of his three starts for the Yankees so far. They could use a little distance out of the new guy but I have confidence in Girardi turning it into a win somehow.

The biggest challenge for the Yankees will be to stay on track and to not get too far ahead of themselves. If I had a nickel for every Yankee fan that said something along the lines of “WORLD SERIES BOUND BABY” last night, Obama would be calling me up asking for financial support. As exciting as it is to think about the playoffs, it’s still only August 10^th. There is a lot of baseball left including six games against an angered Boston team and trips to Los Angeles and Tampa Bay.

A lot can happen between now and October but I think its safe to say that the Yankees are good: really good.