THE GOOD STUFF!

OK, so the past few weeks have had a lot of ranting on our site. I admit, I definitely contributed to that. But to be honest, if I am going to be true to myself and true to the integrity of this site then I'm not going to fake it. Luckily, this time I can write about the pretty unicorns, rainbows, kittens and all of that other happy stuff that has been void in some of my recent contributions. It's a season long grind for our boys and for us here. We ride on that same emotion and we are glad that you take that journey with us.

So after a very disappointing start to a road trip the Yankees have some good Mojo and energy right now. I will admit, paying for two games in Arizona and watching the Yankees crap the bed really put me in a bad mood. I don't pay good money once every six years to watch them play worse than my softball team. Maybe it is really good that I didn't go to the last game because we won! Bad luck or not.....we are going into an off day with a smile on our faces. Maybe Arizona is just bad luck and Oakland just helped the Yankees get their groove back.

I never thought I would say that I am "happy" that the Yankees are tied for third place. What Yankee fan is happy with anything other than first? It's not in our genes. However, after this rocky start I am okay with a temporary tie with the Rays (because I know we can beat them) and looking down at the Blue Jays. It's progress, and you can't be mad at that no matter how slow it is.

So five wins in a row, I will take it. It was nice to see Michael Pineda rebound after his disastrous start in Arizona. He had so many bad pitches there and the Diamondbacks just capitalized on them. Sunday may not have been the cleanest start but the important thing here is it was a quality start and after looking at previous starts I will gladly take three runs in six innings. Now Pineda just needs to build on that and I believe that he can. He pitched himself in and out of trouble, but the important thing is he minimized the damage and he didn't let innings get away from him. He didn't put extra pressure on the bullpen or the offense. This start is a good building block for him.

Carlos Beltran continues his hot streak he went 9-for-18 this series and drove in eight runs. I hope that becomes contagious to the rest of our guys because if the team can start hitting together there is no reason this team can't continue to climb the standings.

I have missed the home runs so seeing them from Brian McCann and Jacoby Ellsbury on Sunday was a welcome surprise. I have given Ellsbury a lot of heat lately. I don't dislike the guy but he needs to be consistent and earn that ridiculous contract we gave him and that is why I ripped him a little bit HERE. Hopefully he is starting to come around because the home run he hit this weekend was no small line drive. I don't expect those all of the time. I do expect him to set the table though and steal some bases. He's been a non-factor so far this season so Sunday was a nice change.

Mark Teixeira finally got a single. It's something. As we get toward the end of May I keep reminding myself that he heats up offensively in June and July. Does the 33 game streak of no home runs concern me? Sure. Do I overthink it? Not yet. He went 3-for-4 at one of the games I was at and I know better months are ahead. He still wants that multi year deal when his contract is up. He is going to put up the numbers. He looks horrible from the left side and I don't see any confidence there yet. Maybe Marcus Thames can help him out. Yes, I said Thames....because even though this post is focusing on the positive my mind still has not changed on Alan Cockrell and I doubt it will so I will stick with Thames.

Last but not least the Yankees will finally get Alex Rodriguez back on Tuesday. He will be rested and that may give the Yankees some extra spark and give someone else the opportunity to take a day off. The Yankees have a longer lineup with his bat and have another guy returning back at full strength. It's all good!

This last five game winning streak has been great. Now it is time to take the momentum and capitalize on it. The Blue Jays are coming into town on Tuesday and then we head off to play the Rays. It's time to put some distance between us and our rivals....it's looking good. Let's keep it going!


   
--Jeana Bellezza, 
BYB Senior Writer and Editor
Twitter: @NyPrincessJ 
 





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