Yankees get bullpen boost (?) for Red Sox series with return of recently exiled RHP

Jake Bird's early-season resurgence was awesome while it lasted. Unfortunately, Matt Blake's advice trickled off his back like rain off a poncho — either that, or the Yankees had just gotten extremely lucky to begin with.

Ultimately, Bird's sweeper-forward arsenal still didn't do many of the things it was supposed to this year, culminating with Mike Trout absolutely tattooing one for a game-tying, three-run homer in last Monday's wacky evening in the Bronx. The Yankees ultimately won the game after Trent Grisham and Jose Caballero's heroics, but Bird was still banished near midnight using one of his options, giving way to Yerry de los Santos and, in turn, Angel Chivilli to try and patch things up.

It only took a week for Bird to rise again, though his return for the Red Sox series is poised to be extremely temporary.

Ryan Weathers, who started Sunday's win over the Royals and dominated, then handed the game belt over to Giancarlo Stanton in the cramped Fenway clubhouse on Tuesday, hit the paternity list between Games 1 and 2 of the set. His turn in the rotation won't come around until the Yankees head to Houston, when ideally he'll be ready to contribute.

If not, Bird — who replaced him to give the Yankees an extra arm to cover things in the interim — will be jettisoned again, potentially in exchange for Elmer Rodriguez? Or maybe he'll just be asked to back up a Ryan Yarbrough start. We'll see.

How has Yankees' Jake Bird performed in Triple-A since demotion?

Bird has been a house afire at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre after leaving the Yankees with a 7.71 ERA!

Oh, wait, actually, he, uh ... he's only appeared twice, throwing 1 1/3 perfect innings with two strikeouts recorded. That stands in stark contrast to the work he did when he was demoted last year — you know, the 6.32 ERA with 12 walks in 15 2/3 frames — but it certainly doesn't tell us much about what we might expect from his rebirth.

Hopefully, he's cordoned off in the corner with Chivilli and only used in case of absolute emergency, especially with the Yankees playing at the famed Boston bandbox known as Fenway Park. The Red Sox lineup might stink, but ... that doesn't give us any added faith here.

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