CHICAGO _ Joe Girardi played on three championship teams with the Yankees and managed one, so he knows of what he speaks.
And although he's not ready to declare the 2017 Yankees anything of the sort, there are continuing signs of something special happening with his young club.
The latest came Friday afternoon in a 3-2 comeback victory over the Cubs on a savagely windy and cold afternoon at Wrigley Field.
With the Yankees down to their last strike in the ninth inning, Brett Gardner stunned much of the crowd by launching a three-run homer off Hector Rondon, who filled in for unavailable closer Wade Davis and threw 40 pitches in the ninth inning.
Aroldis Chapman, who received the World Series ring he won last year with the Cubs in a pregame ceremony, overcame a two-base error by Chase Headley to start the bottom of the ninth and recorded his seventh save.
"It's a never-say-die (attitude)," Girardi said. "Just keep pounding away, keep putting up good at-bats. See what happens."
The AL East-leading Yankees (18-9), who notched their ninth comeback victory, had a mostly frustrating afternoon before the ninth. Despite hitting the ball hard throughout, they entered the inning 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position, stranding eight. The Yankees had two runners thrown out at the plate, both on balls hit by Headley.
"Honestly, we played better than them the whole game," Headley said. "It's not like we weren't putting together good at-bats. And I'm not saying that to be snide, but we really played great and we didn't get the ball to fall in. I thought we continued what we had done all game and were able to break through."
Headley started the ninth-inning rally with a one-out single to left and went to second on a wild pitch, but Chris Carter struck out looking. Jacoby Ellsbury, out the previous two games with a bruised nerve in his left elbow, pinch hit for reliever Jonathan Holder and drew a walk. Up stepped Gardner, who pulled a 2-and-2 slider into the seats in right. As the Yankees' dugout erupted, a pumped- up Gardner celebrated while rounding the bases _ "he was drooling," Headley said _ and then performed a leaping high-five with Ellsbury after touching the plate.
After hitting no homers in his first 18 games, Gardner has five in his last six games.
"We never feel like we're out of it with the lineup we have," said Aaron Judge, who went 2-for-4 with a double and has 13 hits in his last 25 at-bats. "You just never know who's going to step up, and today it was Gardy."
Michael Pineda pitched well for the most part, making a first-inning mistake with a slider to Kris Bryant that resulted in an opposite-field homer to right, and a sixth-inning mistake with a fastball that Kyle Schwarber hit over the right-field fence.
Pineda allowed two runs and three hits in six innings, lowering his ERA to 3.12. The right-hander walked one and struck out six _ he has walked five and struck out 43 in innings this season _ but the Cubs led after his ninth pitch of the game, and it looked as if he'd be tagged with the loss.
Until the ninth.
"I always believe in my team," Pineda said.
Each of the three homers hit in the game went to right, not a surprise given the howling 25-to-35-mph wind blowing in from left all afternoon. It was a 45-degree day, and though skies were sunny, it felt like 37.
After Headley booted Russell's grounder to start the ninth, Chapman struck out Jason Heyward looking at a sharp slider, got Willson Contreras on a grounder to Headley and struck out Javier Baez on three pitches _ two sharp back-door sliders and a 100-mph inside fastball that Baez foul-tipped into Gary Sanchez's mitt.
"Errors are part of the game," Chapman said through his translator. "My job is to focus on the batter, make sure that run doesn't score. Just focus on the job and get the job done."
Which the Yankees have done consistently after a 1-4 start. They have won 17 of their last 22.
"I said all along in spring training I liked this group," Girardi said. "We've gotten off to a pretty good start. There's a long ways to go and there's a lot that plays into this but ... I really liked it (this team) when we left spring training."
