The Yankees are coming!

What has thus far been a dreary, disappointing season could end up turning into the most fun New York Yankees fans have had in a long time.

Maybe even since 1978.

The surging Yankees have won 11 of 14 and are now firmly in position to torture Red Sox Nation for the rest of the summer. They are 7 games back in the AL East, 6 in the loss column, and have sliced 5 games off the lead in the last week.

Red Sox fans are nothing if not paranoid. Even with their 2004 World Series title to comfort them, they still expect the worst, and still loathe the Yankees. Doom and gloom is their specialty, and now you can begin to smell the sweat building up all over Massachusetts way up here in upstate New York.

The Yankees are coming! The Yankees are coming! The Yankees are coming! For Red Sox Nation, it's the nightmare scenario they hoped they would not have to deal with this season.

Can the Yankees keep up the pressure? With their shaky bullpen, who knows. Will the Red sox, 20-23 in their last 43 games, ever start to play like they did early in the season? Maybe, maybe not. With Curt Schilling sidelined, the Yankees now look like they have the better starting rotation. The Red Sox lineup also looks to have holes, with free-agent acquisitions J.D. Drew and Julio Lugo struggling.

A few weeks ago, though, none of this mattered. The Yankees were so far out of first place they needed a GPS to find the Red Sox. Now, they are perched in the Red Sox rearview mirror and are closing ground quickly.

The Yankees are coming, Red Sox Nation. Can you feel the heat?

technorati tags: New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, MLB, Baseball