Yankees.com: Vibes high, surging Yanks win 9th straight on the road for 1st time since 1998

From Bryan Hoch:

Even when the days seemed darkest, the Yankees’ confidence never wavered. There was too much talent in the room, and they trusted a favorable stretch of schedule was waiting down the line. Manager Aaron Boone often reminded them that their best baseball was “in front of us,” and now it may have arrived.

They’re not done yet, but the postseason chase is beginning to line up in their favor. Cody Bellinger blooped a tie-breaking single in a three-run 11th inning, helping the Yankees extend their winning streak to a season-high seven games with a 5-3 victory over the White Sox on Saturday evening at Rate Field.

“The feeling is good. We’re obviously enjoying it,” Bellinger said. “This is definitely better than the other way. But we all understand that there’s more games to play.”

Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Anthony Volpe also doubled in late runs as the Yankees (76-60) moved within two games of the Blue Jays (78-58) for first place in the American League East. They also hold a 1 1/2-game advantage over the Red Sox (75-62) in the AL Wild Card chase.

In just a week, the Yanks have trimmed their deficit on Toronto from 6 1/2 games. They’ve also won nine consecutive road games in a single season for the first time since 1998.

Obviously, they are not going to win the division. Heck, I’d be surprised if they get the top Wild Card spot. But at the very least, they’ve put themselves into a pretty fucking good spot to make the playoffs period, ya know? They’re six games up on the top team not in the playoffs, and that team is the barely over .500 Royals. If the Yankees struggle, why wouldn’t the Royals struggle, too? The Rangers are slightly worse than the Royals.

But, of course, I am not buying them as a division winner. If they somehow don’t suck on this insane Houston/Toronto/Detroit/Boston stretch of games, MAYBE I could believe in them. But, well, that hasn’t happened yet, ya know?

David Bednar had a heroic night in relief, working around a two-out double (once again, Bednar got hurt by hanging a pitch. Even shitty hitters can hit hanging pitches, dude) to pitch a scoreless ninth (and, more importantly, a QUICK ninth), and then, in a tie game in the 10th inning, and the winning run on third base with one out, Bednar had a HUGE strikeout. Earlier in the at-bat, the hitter laced a drive that truly looked like it was a walk-off double, but instead, it hooked foul. Amusingly, Trent Grisham was running hard after it, which was so dumb, because if he actually caught it deep in the right field corner (Grisham was playing center-right because the Yankees were going with five infielders with the runner on third and one out), the runner on third walks in from third base and the game is over. I know your instincts always say “catch the ball,” but thank goodness he pulled back on that one.

Then the Yankees scored three in the eleventh, and not even Camilo Doval could blow that lead (although, let’s give Doval SOME credit. This was his third straight scoreless inning – Manfred Man runner that scores with the second out up 5-2 doesn’t count). Devin Williams blew the lead earlier, which sucked. It also sucked that Cam Schlittler blew the 1-0 lead earlier when he got hit by a line drive. Had it been caught, the runner on first obviously wouldn’t have advanced to second, and thus wouldn’t have scored on the following single. Just bad luck there. But it could have been WORSE luck, as Schlittler APPEARS to be okay.

Featured image is Schlittler showing some emotion after K’in Benintendi in the first with two men on.