Seven wins in nine games has everyone feeling better about the Yankees, although there are a couple of caveats. Every time Joe Girardi makes a move to the bullpen, you can feel the pressure amp up a little bit because no one knows what's coming next. Every member of the pen has taken a turn getting lit up, and eventually that will catch up with the comeback-happy Bombers.
The second of the aforementioned caveats is that the Yankees are still having some issues generating runs. Their lineup is good enough that there's a chance that could change at any time, but it does mean that the bullpen is going to pitching in a lot of high leverage situations. Because Girardi has been forced to mix-and-match among so many mediocre relievers, chances are one of them is going to pop up and do something wrong in any given game.
It's good news, then, that Brian Bruney will be rejoining the team on Tuesday. Bruney was doing a nice job in the eighth inning to start the season, and his injury had a domino effect of making the whole relief corps look a little bit worse. If he can resume his role in front of Mariano Rivera, it would be a huge boost to the team's trouble getting outs toward the ends of games. Trading for pitchers, as the Yankees learned with last summer's Damaso Marte deal, is prohibitively expensive and, as they've learned from having Damaso Marte, fraught with danger.
In other injury news, Chien-Ming Wang threw seven shutout innings in Scranton on Sunday, but he'll probably rehab a bit longer before he's back in the rotation for good. Given the way the rotation is throwing right now, that's okay especially if another start or two gets Phil Hughes looking more prepared for a spot in the big leagues.
All in all, things are looking up for the Yankees in all phases of their game. If Jorge Posada can turn back the hands of time, Girardi may actually get to play with a full roster for the first time in his two years as Yankee manager.
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City and is a contributor to FanHouse.com and ProFootballTalk.com in addition to his duties for NBCNewYork.com.
