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DETROIT — At a time when few outsiders believe the Yankees can crawl out of a very deep ALCS ditch, someone who has helped do it twice thinks it’s not a lost cause.
“They have to believe in who they are instead of what others say they are,’’ Darryl Strawberry told The Post yesterday via phone. “They have to say to themselves, ‘I got here because of who I am.’ ”
Strawberry was a big piece of the 1986 Mets, who came back from a 0-2 World Series deficit against the Red Sox to be world champions, and a lesser part of the 1996 Yankees, who lost the first two World Series games to the Braves and ran off four straight victories.
Like this edition of the Yankees, Strawberry’s teams lost the first two games of a best-of-seven affair at home.
“When we went to Atlanta, we had a lot of belief in ourselves,’’ Strawberry said. “That was the whole key.’’
The Yankees had David Cone starting against Tom Glavine in Game 3. Tonight they have the up-and-down Phil Hughes pitted against Tigers ace Justin Verlander, a pitcher with possibly the best stuff in baseball.
Because they haven’t hit, the Yankees trail 0-2 and have many voices believing the ditch is too deep to escape.
According to Dwight Gooden, the ace of the 1986 Mets and part of the 1996 Yankees who was injured during the postseason, the Yankees hitters need to alter their approach at the plate.
“They need to go at-bat to at-bat and try to get on base,’’ Gooden told The Post. “From what I have seen in the first two games, they are trying to hit the ball out of the park. They are facing Cy Young [in Game 3], but they have made the other two guys [Doug Fister and Anibal Sanchez] look like Cy Young. All it takes is one pitch like the one [Jim] Leyritz hit the homer off [Mark] Wohlers.’’
Wally Backman, one of the 1986 Mets’ catalysts, agrees with Gooden that forcing the issue at this point is a good idea.
“They have to make things happen,’’ Backman said. “Now you have to fight.’’
While Verlander is tough, the Yankees have made him bleed. In three games against the Yankees this year, the gas-throwing right-hander whose fastball reaches triple digits, is 1-1 with a 3.10 ERA. The Yankees batted .294 off the reigning AL MVP and Cy Young winner.
Having seen Verlander brings a certain level of confidence because he isn’t a stranger.
“It doesn’t matter who you’re facing, as a hitter you want to face familiar pitchers, even if he happens to be the best pitcher on the planet now and maybe the best pitcher in the last 10, 15 years,’’ said Mark Teixeira, one of the few Yankees not swinging dead wood. “We have played Justin a lot. We won a few games, we lost a few games. And the biggest thing is familiarity. We know what he will do to us. He will throw it 100 miles an hour, mix in a good curveball and a good changeup. And it sounds like a tough job, but we have risen to the occasion before and are hoping to do it again.’’
According to Tino Martinez, the Yankees should emulate the 1996 team by ignoring the deficit and focusing on the next game.
“All we talked about after Game 2 was what we were going to do to win Game 3,’’ Martinez said. “Win Game 3 and find a way to get the series back to New York, that’s all we talked about from the time we got on the plane after Game 2 until Game 3.’’
george.king@nypost.com