The Yankees have been through some tough times this year, suffering just about every setback a team can endure - more Carl Pavano heartbreak (I'm still pretty convinced we should blame Alissa Milano for this one, simply because her last name rhymes with Pavano and anyone can see that such a cutesy sounding couple could mean nothing but trouble), freak injuries, and the sudden inexplicable inability to take a walk are just a sampling of the pain we've been witness to. It's been quite a while since the Yanks could make this claim, but perhaps that makes the reality that much sweeter: The Yankees are officially an above average team!

The Yanks reached the .500 mark after their win on Tuesday and the win on Wednesday finally put them into the black; last night's win took their hot streak to 9 in a row and 2 games over. Better still, the Red Sox are finally losing (thank you, Lord Bloody Sock), putting the Yanks just 7.5 games out in the division. A 7.5 game spread between the Yanks and Sox may still sound like a lot to overcome, but when one remembers the fact that just 2 weeks ago they were trailing by closer to 15 games, anything under 10 starts sounding pretty damn good. As I mentioned in Monday's video blog, I feel that we can attribute the Yanks recent success to a simple attitude adjustment (to borrow a phrase from a militant gym teacher the Yankees Chick suffered through 7th grade with...), and while I am eternally greatful for these recent wins, I must confess that the pessimist in me fears that the spirit the Yanks have been playing with could disappear as quickly as it graced them. We've seen that these boys are as sensitive as a schoolgirl being chased by a boy intent on giving her cooties (me again, sorry), so the threat remains that if an injury or bad loss were to come their way, the morale could take another nosedive.

For this weekend's Subway Series, I aim to put my fears out of mind and hope that the Yanks keep rolling forward with these wins. The sweeps of the Pirates and D-Backs were great, but taking the series from the Mets would take this sweet morale to a whole new level.