Bleeding Yankee Blue: A SLEEPY GOOD MORNING TO THE BEST TEAM IN BASEBALL

Monday, May 8, 2017

A SLEEPY GOOD MORNING TO THE BEST TEAM IN BASEBALL

Photo: David Banks / Getty Images

Here's a quick Monday morning pop quiz.

Staying up for the end of what turned out to be an 18-inning six-hour ballgame being played in the Central Time Zone makes me:

A) An aficionado of early 20th Century stadium architecture.

B) A horticulturist with an ivy fetish.

C) An obsessive compulsive nut-bar Yankee fan in desperate need of sleep but lacking adequate time to get enough before work in this morning.

If you guessed C, have a cup of Joe on me.

After watching this team of ours finish sweeping the World Champs a little while ago, I'm here to tell you this crazy team of ours isn't merely content finding ways to win anymore.

(Photo: Caylor Arnold, USA TODAY Sports)

Not by a long shot. Now they're inventing entirely new ways to win out of thin air.

With nine of their 19 wins going into their last tango at Wrigley of the come-from-behind variety, another run-of-the-mill comeback rally somehow just wouldn't do for our boys. Oh no.

I mean, when you're hot you're hot. But this is getting ridiculous.

Aroldis coughed up three runs in the 9th Sunday night to blow his first save since the World Series -- and we win?

Photo: Getty Images

Four Yankee relievers not named Aroldis or Dellin (Clippard, Warren, Holder and Shreve) were pressed into service to pitch the equivalent of another complete game -- and we win?

A franchise worst 22 strikeouts and 22 runners stranded from our lineup-- and we win?

Starlin, the league's top hitter, along with Didi, Chase and Austin all go a combined 0-for-30 -- and we win?

(May 6, 2017 - Source: David Banks/Getty Images North America)

Hicks, who struck out four friggin' times, was the friggin' hero.

In a win.

“It’s a gritty performance by our guys because we had the 4-1 lead and we weren’t able to hold it,” Joe Girardi said, following his team’s three-game sweep in what was the longest game in the history of Interleague play. “But we got some brilliant performances out of guys out of the bullpen because they were stretched further than they had to go. It’s a crazy game. It gives our guys confidence.”

Confidence?

After a series like that ending with a game like that -- a game in which so much went wrong on the road against the reigning World Champs and still ended so right -- they've got to feel like the best dang team in baseball.

And if you look at the standings this morning, that's exactly who they are.