It’s not a natural pairing, to be sure, but Teixeira hit big housing runs on both Saturday and Sunday to assist the Yankees win the string from the Mets and pass the Rays to take sole possession of first place. Hopefully he won’t take any fashion cues for the pop star, the planet isn’t ready to find out that Teixeira wears a bra and fishnets under his uniform, but perhaps her own streak of big hits rubbed off on Tex.

Lady Gaga, as you can inform from her ubiquity, is taking advantage of every opportunity that comes her way. Teixeira has executed that from minute to time this season but he hasn’t been as consistent a hitmaker as the Yankees’ unlikely lucky charm. He may be getting into a groove — sorry to mix pop star metaphors — as he’s got a 1010 OPS over the endure 13 games but we’re still cautious almost proclaiming him totally alive.

Not so with CC Sabathia. A long stretch at which the big fella only looked good against the Orioles came to an end against the Phillies and he looked still better in Sunday’s 4-0 win. Eight shutout innings are always tasty, he’d expected have come out for the ninth if not for a rain delay, but it was the fact so he needed just recently 100 pitches to get there that was in effect impressive. That’s efficient strike throwing, the kind of thing that CC was struggling with earlier this season.

Maybe he just needed summer to get here. It arrives on Monday, of course, and the Yankees will greet the change in seasons from a solo first place perch in the AL East. They are not clear of the fray by any means, the Red Sox joined the Rays a game behind the Yanks among a Sunday night win, but it is a pretty inspiring position for the cluster to give themselves in given the fact that, like Teixeira, they haven’t quite found their groove yet.

They’re 2-0 since Gaga invaded the clubhouse and they eventually moved to the top of the charts, so possibly the lady isn’t such a tramp once all. The team seems to discover her power to inspire. They lifted a briefly rumored ban on her from the Stadium and the clubhouse that is not a bad idea. Given the way everything she touches seems to turn to gold, they might crisis her to bust a slump before the year is out.

Let’s just hope so she doesn’t hold a grudge if Frank Sinatra’s version of “New York, New York” winds up as the feel-good hit of the summer?