THE ART OF THE WIN

(Photo: Daily News)
The New York Yankees are rolling and it doesn’t stop with our last home stand, it only continues. As far as I’m concerned, we’ve got the rest of the division by the balls. Why? Because considering all the injuries we’ve had with our starting pitching and some of our other stars, like Jeet, I’d say that’s pretty damn exciting...we're still winning! We’re still in it.

So, what's the goal? For me, I’d say getting to first place and be up 2 or 3 games by the All-Star break. To me, that puts us in a good position with a few days off and a final push toward the playoffs.

Look, the Red Sox are no slouches, we saw that the last series when they swept us like we were dirt on my kitchen floor. It was just pathetic. But then something happened…we woke up. The Red Sox made us realize that it doesn’t matter what problems we have, we need to take the field and deliver. I have seen confidence building this past week and I see the Yankees will use that that crappy Sox series as a building block for victory down the road. It’s time to dig deep, play hard and set the tone, that’s the Art of the Win.

You know my recent infatuation with Curtis Granderson. He’s been leading the assault all season and believe it or not he is a leader on this New York Yankee team, and guess what… it’s addictive. Don’t believe me? Did you see the 12-4 game Tuesday night (read HERE)? Gardner was on fire, his production was solid. Nick Swisher… he’s been in the shadows long enough and even he produced now. G.G.S. is about the help lead the N.Y.Y. to a competitive run. It continued yesterday when Gardy knocked in Granderson to win the game in 12th inning 3-2 and sweep the Rangers. You can laugh at me all you want, but I’m telling you, you hang with run producers long enough, you also produce runs. As a group, you become invincible. Again…it’s addictive.

Look at Posada. Yes, he’s in the low .220’s, but he’s now hitting and has an incredible June so far. He even had a game tying double yesterday and hopefully it keeps on coming.

CC Monster has 8 wins Ladies and Gentlemen. Yes, he may opt out at the end of the year, but we’re playing for now and believe me, he’s not going to slack, he needs a solid season and we need him. Freddy and AJ have been solid this year with just minimal bad outings and when Bartolo comes back, we may see more of the same… wins.

And speaking of Bartolo Colon, since he’s gone to the DL, the Yankees surprised everyone signing a guy named Brian Gordon. Yesterday he went 5 1/3 innings and held it down wonderfully. Not bad for a 10 year minor league veteran. Gordon’s got promise and I trust Cashman with this guy.

And finally, our bullpen. Our sweet, sweet bullpen that started out strong and slowly has fallen apart, but with Mo and D-Rob leading the crew, we may just be able to shut down the competition with the likes of a talented Luis Ayala, lefty Boone Logan and a new kid named Cory Wade. It’s good stuff.

So while this is not exactly the Yankees team we expected to see in June, it’s a good ball club and they are doing the best job they can and succeeding. So back to my point... the Art of the Win. We can thank the evil Red Sox for the wins, the streak and the continued confidence, because they’ve woken up a sleeping giant after that horrendous 3 game losing streak. Thank you Boston.

Damn… can you imagine where we’d be if we were healthy? I looking forward to July ladies and gentlemen, our boys of summer will be at full strength, nothing could be better than mowing down the competition in October…nothing.

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