MLB

Soriano saves Yankees again with late home run

It was Ichiro Suzuki’s night, and Alfonso Soriano made sure he could enjoy it.

After Ichiro picked up the evening’s most memorable hit — the milestone 4,000th of his career — Soriano got the game’s winning one. He crushed a two-run, eighth-inning homer to break a tie and hand the Yankees a 4-2 victory over the Blue Jays last night at the Stadium.

Former Met R.A. Dickey had retired 14 of 15 before Robinson Cano slapped a two-out single. Soriano stepped to the plate and snapped his 0-for-17 skid, hammering the two-run shot to left to propel the Yankees.

“As soon as Cano got the hit, I said this is the chance to do something impressive, because every game is very important for us,’’ Soriano said. “I don’t want to put a lot of pressure on myself, I just want to try to make a good swing. That’s what happened. He threw me a good one [to hit], and I put on a good swing.

“I just tried to swing at one good pitch to hit, because the whole game he’d been throwing knuckleballs, good ones with a lot of movement. Finally the last at-bat I got a good one to hit, and that was good to take the lead.’’

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Soriano, who came to the Yankees in a trade with the Cubs on July 26, has been impressive since rejoining the Bombers. He homer his ninth in 24 games with the Bombers.

“That guy is unreal,’’ said winning pitcher David Huff.

“He was due. As hot as he had been, he was due,’’ said manager Joe Girardi, who mentioned Soriano came into the game with seven homers and 14 RBIs off knuckleballers.

“It’s very hard. I like to hit knuckleballs, but [Dickey’s] a little different because he throws knuckleballs hard,’’ Soriano said. “It took me like two or three at-bats to get comfortable. Finally the last at-bat I got one, and it was good for the team.’’

Good enough to lift the Yankees to their ninth win in 11 games.

“It’s great,’’ Soriano said. “It’s a long season. Sometimes we have a bad week, a bad two weeks, but we’ve come back from that week and come back very strong.

“The lineup we have now is very strong and I hope the offense continues to produce the way we’re producing right now.’’