Remember, last season, when we all ragged mercilessly on Girardi because he had the temerity to bat Robinson Canó fifth?

Uh.  Yeah.

After two home runs and a double tonight, he’s now batting .407, and slugging .790.  His OPS is up to 1.235–and to put that in perspective, Alex Rodriguez had an OPS in April 07 of 1.297–a difference that at this point in the season is small enough it could be made up with a good game from Canó tomorrow.

Between 2007 and 2010, A-Rod has Canó beat in home runs (13 to 8) and slugging percentage (.882 to .790), but Canó has the benefit of playing on a team that is not knocking on the door of their division’s basement.

If, in fact, Canó wasn’t too busy channeling his inner Albert Pujols, we’d all be talking about AJ Burnett’s start tonight–eight innings, three hits and one walk, no runs.  Out of 116 pitches, 76 were strikes, and given the dichotomy between Good AJ and Bad AJ, tonight was a thing of beauty to watch.  AJ’s ERA on the season sits at 2.43.

The Yankees are now 14-7, and have only played six games at home–they return home tomorrow to face the Chicago White Sox.

Now, if only Tampa Bay would realize it wouldn’t kill them to lose a game…