This is the Greg Bird the Yankees have waited for

Yankees first baseman Greg Bird has seen drastic improvement since his terrible start, the latest showing coming in a 7-6 win over the Mets on Saturday.

NEW YORK — Maybe it’s not so crazy to start dreaming on Greg Bird again.

Bird has been on a tear lately, his latest big-time contributions coming in Saturday’s 7-6 win over the Mets at Yankee Stadium.

Bird went 2-for-4 with two RBI and a double.

In his last nine games, he’s got 14 RBI. Since June 26, he’s hitting .571 (8-for-14) with 15 RBI.

On the season, he’s upped his batting average to .223, which tells you how badly he struggled — and for how long — after coming off the disabled list following end-of-spring-training surgery to remove a bone spur in his right ankle.

“I think in the last two to three weeks it’s really gotten a lot better,” Bird said of his own at-bat quality.

Boone would never pull a Callaway

That was on display Sunday. In the fourth and with a runner on second base, Bird fell behind Mets starting pitcher Steven Matz, 0-2. But he stayed back on a curveball and shot it over center fielder Matt den Dekker’s head to score Miguel Andujar and increase the Yankees’ cushion to 3-1.

Then in the sixth, Bird turned on a hanging fastball. It landed in shallow right field for a single, plating Andujar again and putting the Yankees up, 5-3.

“It’s just a process, really. Just sticking to it,” Bird said. “I feel like I’ve been getting better and better. … It’s little by little, little things come back, and you figure out what you’ve got to do to make it happen, kind of. That’s the biggest thing, really.”

Bird came off the DL on May 15 and hit .196 with a .737 OPS through his first 30 games. Since then, he was hitting .255 with a .840 OPS entering Saturday.

“More consistent,” Bird said. “I said that early a lot. That’s the biggest thing for me, getting my swing off consistently, being in the right spot consistently, that’s what you’ve got to be able to do here, every day, every pitch. Just getting back into that groove is the biggest thing.”

Brendan Kuty may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @BrendanKutyNJ. Find NJ.com Yankees on Facebook.