MLB

Swisher misses signal, finds power in Yankees’ sweep of A’s

OAKLAND, Calif. — It’s a good thing for the Yankees that Athletics pitching coach Ron Romanick went to the mound to visit Gio Gonzalez in the middle of a fourth-inning rally yesterday.

That gave Nick Swisher time to chat with third-base coach Rob Thomson. Swisher thought Thomson had given him a bunt sign on the first pitch and didn’t erase it before the second offering with runners on first and second, no outs and the Yankees trailing by a run.

“What do you want me to do?” said a confused Swisher, who showed bunt on both pitches but took them for balls. “He told me, ‘Let it loose.’ ”

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By the time Romanick got to the third-base dugout, Swisher let loose with a game-changing three-run homer and the Yankees were on their way to a 4-2 win before an announced crowd of 25,469 at the Coliseum.

“I take full responsibility for that,” Swisher said of the mix-up that turned into his fourth homer of the season, which scored Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano.

Through April and May, Swisher was hitting .159 (7-for-44) with runners in scoring position and hadn’t homered in the clutch.

The victory was the Yankees’ season-high fourth-straight overall and 10th in a row over the A’s. Coupled with the Red Sox losing their fourth-consecutive game the Yankees stretched their AL East lead to two games.

Derek Jeter went 1-for-4 and is 16 shy of 3,000.

April and May were struggles for Swisher, who after hitting 29 homers in the first two Yankee seasons came to be relied on as a primary run producer.

According to manager Joe Girardi, Swisher’s at-bats have been improving lately and yesterday he jumped on the 2-0 pitch.

“I feel like myself again,” said Swisher, who has six hits in his last 19 at-bats to raise his average to .215. “I feel like the hard work is starting to take over and the bat feels light in my hands.”

Continuing a recent trend, A.J. Burnett provided an effective, if not dominating performance.

“He had to battle today, it wasn’t easy,” Girardi said of Burnett’s seven-inning outing in which he allowed two runs, three hits, walked three and fanned five.

After giving up a two-run homer to Josh Willingham on a misplaced four-seam fastball in the first that erased a 1-0 lead, Burnett didn’t allow another run.

Shortly after Willingham’s homer, Burnett went away from the rising fastball and used the sinking heater and knee-locking curveball.

“That was the one pitch where the conviction wasn’t there 100 percent,” Burnett said.

It’s not a coincidence the Yankees’ longest winning streak has been highlighted by strong starting pitching.

CC Sabathia went eight innings Sunday in Seattle. Bartolo Colon went the distance on Monday. Tuesday and yesterday it was Freddy Garcia and Burnett going seven.

Joba Chamberlain worked a scoreless eighth and Mariano Rivera provided a perfect ninth for his 14th save.

“It all started with CC,” said Alex Rodriguez, who drove in Jeter from second with two outs in the first after Jeter opened the game with a double over Willingham’s head in left. “That started to turn things around.”

After losing the first two games of a nine-game, three-city West Coast swing in Seattle, the Yankees are 4-2 going into today’s day of rest in Orange County before a three-game set with the Angels.

“It’s fun for everybody in here,” said Burnett, who improved to 6-3.

Especially when the game-winning homer comes from a guy who thought he saw bunt signs that weren’t flashed.