Greg Bird has long carried himself with a poise that belies his years. His high school teammates joked that he was 16 going on 40, asking him when he arrived for early-morning practices if he had already had his morning coffee and perused his stocks.
So, as frustrated as Bird may have become when his progress was derailed by injuries for a second straight season, he appeared patient. And as the Yankees clinched a spot in the playoffs, he saw a chance to salvage some of what he had lost.
On Sunday night, Bird salvaged the Yankees’ season — at least temporarily — by blasting a seventh-inning homer off the redoubtable reliever Andrew Miller to lift the Yankees to a 1-0 victory over the Cleveland Indians in Game 3 of their American League division series.