MLB

Newbies Chavez, Martin, Soriano help Yankees top Rangers

On a night of home runs, it was a groundball up the middle that won the game for the Yankees.

Eric Chavez’s base hit to center field in the eighth inning was enough to allow Mark Teixeira to score from second and was the difference in a 6-5 victory over the Rangers before an announced crowd of 40,811 fans at Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees had scored their first five runs on three home runs, bringing their season total to 27 long balls. But it was a single from Chavez, one of Brian Cashman’s bargain-bin signings, that gave the Bombers a series victory over the team that knocked them out of the playoffs last year.

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Chavez started at third base because Alex Rodriguez was out with a sore left oblique. Chavez came to the plate in the eighth inning with two outs and two on against Arthur Rhodes, a pitcher he last faced in 2005, and hit a 2-2 fastball into center field to knock Teixeira in.

This is Chavez’s first season in New York after 13 with the Athletics. So far, the adjustment has been an easy one for the 33-year-o ld, who is hitting .455 in a reserve role.

“The last few years [in Oakland] hadn’t been working,” Chavez said. “I needed a change.”

Chavez was not the only new Yankee to provide a boost last night. Russell Martin hit a game-tying, two-run home run, bringing his season tally to four, one shy of his total from last year with the Dodgers. Another new arrival, Rafael Soriano, pitched a near flawless eighth inning a day after struggling.

“You’re talking about some guys who have played in really important games, guys that are really experienced, have been in the playoffs a lot in their career,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “I think that makes somewhat of a difference.”

The Yankees’ total of 27 home runs is the most through 14 games in franchise history. Of the 77 runs they have scored, 48 have come from home runs (62.3 percent). Even without Rodriguez and his 617 career home runs, the Yankees continue to blast balls over the fence.

CC Sabathia left the game with a 5-4 lead in the seventh inning, but Joba Chamberlain allowed Texas to tie it up on a Michael Young double.

With one out in the eighth, Teixeira walked. Rhodes then got Robinson Cano, who had homered earlier, to fly out to left for the second out. Nick Swisher kept the inning going with a single to bring Chavez to the plate.

Sabathia remains winless through his first four starts. The bullpen cost him wins in two of those starts.

Last night, Sabathia had trouble with Young and Adrian Beltre in the middle of the Rangers’ lineup. That duo went 6-for-8 with five RBIs and three runs scored. Beltre knocked in the Rangers’ first four runs. He did so much to torture New York last night it would not have been surprising if he also scored 20 points for the Celtics.

“It was just a battle,” said Sabathia, who gave up four runs and eight hits in 6 1/3 innings. “Every start I’ve had so far has been a battle. I’m just trying to make pitches. I don’t know if I’ve had a three up, three down inning this year.”

Chamberlain gave up a four-pitch walk to Ian Kinsler, the first batter he faced, then the double to Young that tied the game, 5-5.

“I let [Sabathia] down,” Chamberlain said. “That one’s on me.”

Curtis Granderson’s fourth home run of the season, a two-run shot, made it 5-4 in the sixth inning.

Rangers starter Alexi Ogando, who allowed three home runs in the game, had given up just two in his 46 career regular-season appearances before last night.

brian.costello@nypost.com