Yankees vault back into AL wild card race, according to the Yankees

Imagine there's no heaven. It's easy if you try.

Now, imagine... three Yankee wins in a row!

Back to back to back, and belly to belly to belly... 

Three. The Bermuda Triangle. The atomic number of Lithium. The number of dimensions humans can perceive. The Holy Trinity. The Hindu Triveti. The Babe.  

Morning, noon and night. Breakfast, lunch and supper. Willie, Mickey & the Duke. Mo, Larry & Curly. (Sorry, Shemp.)

Three wins in a row. Does such a concept even exist? The last time the Yankees won two straight over teams with winning records was July 3-4. They celebrated by losing nine of their next 11.

Three. 

The concept grows murkier when you picture Luis Severino, "Setback Sevy," starting tonight against the likely AL pitching rookie of the year - testament to the talent that regularly rises through other farm systems. This happens while Yankee courtiers talk-up "youngsters" like Jake Bauers, 27, and Willie Calhoun, 28, who - by the way - just told the Yankees to fuck off, rather than accept another exile to the ultra-fracked hellholes of Scranton.  

I got nothing against Bauers and Calhoun - or Billy McKinney or Franchy Cordero, or any of the Crackerjack surprises plucked this spring from MLB recycling bins, in Brian Cashman's relentless quest to find a lefty hitting Kismet. The problem is that we've been here before: Win two, then butcher Game Three and - damn - who can possibly think of winning, gulp, four?  

So, two in a row...

1. Another standard, stock-issue Clarke Schmidt start: Five innings and two-to-three runs. It's what Roger Clemens delivered at the end of his career, except without the purple Viagra pills. Nothing wrong with a Clarke Starte, especially compared to the recent abominations by Setback Sevy. 

The problem: It almost ensures that Aaron Boone will drain the bullpen A-list: Wandy, King, Tommy and Clay. Thus, tonight we can expect to see Albert Abreu and the uproarious cast of Ghosts!  And whenever old "Double A" is out there, well, the game is usually over or tilting that way like the Tower of Pisa. 

Why why WHY can't we win three straight? Well, figure Game One is Gerrit Cole, and Game Two explodes the bullpen. Then comes Sevy, or Rodon, or whomever is riding the Scranton shuttle. (This weekend, Nasty Nestor. Cross fingers.)

2. Last night, we foresaw the world without Anthony Rizzo, who - strangely - seemed to be having a grand old time in the dugout. That's fine. I don't want to see him moping or sad. I just sorta figured that, recovering from a bizarre concussion, he'd be home, under a blanket, drinking fruit juice and listening to a taped waterfall. So, now what? He'll rest 10 days and take Trump's cognitive "Person, Man, Woman, Camera, TV" test?  How do you heal from a concussion that avoided a diagnose for two months? Who decides when he's back to normal? Is Dr. Joyce Brothers still working?

Why do I get a feeling that the front office simply wanted Rizzo to sit out this crucial Houston series, the potential finale of a lost season? If the Yankees lose this series, if they continue to slog through the soup of their own incontinence, it's going to be damn hard to rouse public interest in this team. The tabloids will soon turn to football. It's now or never, and the Yankees simply didn't want Rizzo out there. 

3. Over the last seven games, Anthony Volpe is hitting .273 with a HR. (Over the last 15 games: .303.) Let's hope Boone doesn't stick him back in the leadoff position, which seemed to sabotage him last time. 

Let the kid develop at his own pace, right? Yeah, sure. What are the chances?