There was another team of recent vintage, playing under the flag of New York, that picked the absolute perfect time to blossom into the version of itself we’d always wanted to see. If memory serves, once that team found itself, it didn’t merely start beating teams, but throttling them. 

By 30. By 40. One night, by 51. 

That team, not incidentally, wound up winning 13 playoff games in a row. Thirteen happens to be the magic number required for the Yankees to win the World Series. 

Hey, if you’re not going to dream big baseball dreams the morning the calendar officially clicks to October, when exactly are you going to dream them? The Yankees blasted the Red Sox for a second straight night at Yankee Stadium, 9-2, to wrap up a stress-free American League wild-card series Wednesday night in a 2-0 sweep.