Yankees: This is what a well-oiled team machine looks like

The Yankees would say that it’s only June and we haven’t even played 100 games together. And that our Division rivals have yet to play their best baseball. And the ace of our staff has only been a shell of himself. Well, phooey. This team is good.

The Yankees won their straight against a division rival last night. The did it using the age-old formula of strong starting pitching and timely hitting that comes with a punctuation mark. But this is not new for the 2017 Yankees. They’ve been doing this since April.

At some point in a baseball season, you have to be able to separate what’s real and what’s not. The Colorado Rockies are for real, and the Houston Astros are playing their games on another planet. While other teams like the Chicago Cubs and the Cleveland Indians are for real too, except it’s not necessarily a compliment to say that.

The Yankees will play their 59th game against the Orioles tonight at Yankee Stadium. That’s a little more than one-third of the reason in the books. They’ve packed two significant win streaks of six and nine games into their season, and they’ve consistently hung around the mark of playing .600 baseball and ten games over .500 (it’s now twelve over).

They won without Didi Gregorius for a month (thank you, Ronald Torreyes). They continued to win when Gary Sanchez (thank you, Austin Romine). And now, they continue to roll without Aroldis Chapman, whose time-out is now reaching a full month. (a big thank you, Dellin Betances).

Contributions are flying in

More significantly, though, the Yankees have not had an extended losing streak. Without looking, I can’t recall the last time the team lost even three in a row. And equally, as important, contributions are flying in from all parts of the team.

Last night, Aaron Hicks, who didn’t have a regular job in April, hits two home runs, all but punching his ticket to the All-Star Game in Miami. And Jordan Montgomery, who really does look like Andy Pettitte from that camera in center field, throws seven immaculate innings, his longest outing of his career.

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Starlin Castro and Gregorius are both hitting over .300, and Brett Gardner is playing like he’s 25 and not approaching 35. And Matt Holliday continues to prove that Brian Cashman is a pure genius when it comes to identifying that one player the team needs to provide veteran leadership, while at the same time delivering with his bat in the middle of the order.

And we haven’t mentioned the rest of the pitching staff, with Grandpa and two kids on his worn out knees. Plus the guys down in the pen who know with no doubt their roles as assigned by Joe Girardi.

And it’s about time the name Girardi came up here. Is there another manager in the American League who is doing a better job than Girardi, who is not even assured of having a job next season?

No team is destined to win anything

Sometimes, you just get a feeling about a player, or in this case, a team. And you sense something about them that you can’t quantify, but everything seems to be “right” about them. That’s the way it is with these Yankees.

No team is destined to win anything. And predictions now about the Yankees going to the World Series are as worthless as the ones that said the Cubs would win 100 again and march to their second consecutive title.

Yankees will promote Chance Adams but not demote Masahiro Tanaka

Very soon the Yankees will announce that they are giving Adams a start in place of Tanaka. That is probably why he is pitching on the same days as Masahiro.

The only thing we can say, though, is that this Yankees team will show up ready to play every day as a team. And that alone is a worthy accomplishment in a sport where 25 men, from all parts of the world, come together 24/7 for six months, with little or no personal or family time in-between.

Joe Girardi has put together a well-oiled machine that shows few signs of breaking down. But it all begins again when the Yankees take the field at 7:15 P.M. tonight to play their 59th game of the season.