BOSTON — The Yankees ruled with power in the first half.
Power bats and power arms.
Their hitters lead the majors in homers and their pitchers are second in the AL in strikeouts. It is a winning combination, enabling the Yankees to overcome some pretty obvious blemishes and produce the best record in the majors (52-33) going into the All-Star break.
The Yanks have not hit particularly well with men on base. Even last night, in a 7-3 victory over the Red Sox, the Yankees could not completely blow this game open because they went 5-for-22 with men on base and 3-for-14 with runners in scoring position. Nevertheless, they hit the ball over the wall so frequently and mercilessly as to minimize their clutch issues.
Aside from the right side of the infield, the Yankees are not a very efficient defensive team. Derek Jeter, in particular, was brutal yesterday. But you can’t misplay what isn’t hit and, of the 27 Red Sox outs, 15 were by whiffs.
Rafael Soriano struck out three in the ninth to help the Yankees take three of four in a series in which Boston tried to negate the Yankees might by starting three lefties. Joe Girardi, though, could turn to a 10-time Gold Glove winner with 431 homers as a countermeasure; poor Bobby Valentine was turning to Mauro Gomez, Nick Punto and Pedro Ciraco.
Andruw Jones responded for Girardi with a tour-de-force weekend. He made two splendid defensive plays Saturday and hit four homers in his three starts — or two more than Boston hit in the four-game series.
Jones’ homer yesterday actually came off of righty reliever Scott Atchison, a two-run shot that made it 7-2. It also gave Jones 11 homers in just 127 at-bats. He is one of seven Yankees with at least 11 homers and the team total is 134 — 11 more than any other club.
But the reason the Yankees had a lead to extend yesterday was because Ivan Nova did not melt amid a hail of misplays. Three dubious plays by Jeter led to two Boston runs and Nova needing to throw 72 pitches over three innings.
However, as Joe Girardi said, Nova “overcame some things. That is a sign of maturing.” Amid signs of growth, nothing has become more refined than Nova’s ability to deliver a strikeout.
Most pitchers cannot command multiple breaking balls. But Nova has shown a penchant to do just that. He will throw a slow curve for strikes to get ahead and then hitters will see spin on the ball later in the at-bat, read curve and get a harder slider that whips off of the plate for swings and misses.
“The consistency of the slider is so big,” Girardi said.
Nova whiffed 10 in six innings, his second-highest total ever. It was the fourth time in 17 first-half starts that he has struck out at least eight. He did it once in the first 34 starts of his career. He also now has 100 strikeouts in 1102/3 innings or two more than he had in 1651/3 innings last year. And the Yankees have 713 strikeouts as a staff. Only Detroit, with 715, has more in the AL.
Nova (10-3, 3.92 ERA) is 4-1 with a 1.70 ERA in his last seven starts. It is well-timed. The Yankees have scheduled CC Sabathia for the fifth game after the break. But Andy Pettitte will be out until late August — possibly longer. Thus, a maturing Nova is going to be vital for the Yanks to protect the largest lead (seven games) in any division; to remain atop an AL East in which every team is still .500 or better.
Obviously, there is a lot of treacherous road to go in the second half for the Yankees. No Pettitte for a while. Probably no Mariano Rivera at all. Plenty of age dotting the roster. That troubling defense.
But the Yanks have those power bats and power arms. It enabled them not to be the Red Sox, who have yet to unearth a formula to deal with their various shortcomings.
At the All-Star break, the Yankees are enjoying the power of power. They are not half bad.
joel.sherman@nypost.com