MLB

Cano, CC lead Yankees past Twins

MINNEAPOLIS — After watching the Yankees awake from a deep lumber slumber in the previous two games CC Sabathia didn’t have the luxury of his teammates ringing the scoreboard often Wednesday night.

What the staff ace had was a fierce desire to compete without his best stuff, Robinson Cano’s smoking bat and Twins manager Ron Gardenhire’s decision to pitch to baseball’s hottest hitter with runners on second and third, no outs and the hosts leading by two runs in the sixth inning.

“Robbie is one of the best hitters in the game,’’ Sabathia said after he earned his 200th victory to help the Yankees eke out a 3-2 win in front of 38,457 at Target Field. “He got on a streak like this last year at the end and carried us. It’s fun to watch.’’

Cano delivered a two-run double off right-hander P.J. Walters that tied the score, and Lyle Overbay followed with a sacrifice fly that inched the Yankees ahead, 3-2.

Sabathia survived mini-jams in the sixth and seventh and turned the lead over to David Robertson in the eighth.

“It was important to have a shut-down game and pitch with a lead,’’ said Sabathia. “That’s something I haven’t been doing lately.’’

Sabathia let an early 3-0 advantage evaporate last Friday night in Baltimore and snapped in the dugout. This time he gave up a run in the third when he had to pitch around new shortstop Luis Cruz’s throwing error and another in the fifth when Trevor Plouffe skipped a homer off the top of the center-field fence.

“I was just trying to grind and make pitches,’’ said Sabathia, who required a season-high 121 to get through seven innings in which he gave up two runs, seven hits, walked three and fanned nine with high school coach Abe Hobbs on hand. “I felt my arm angle was all over the place. I was battling all night and I was happy to get the win.’’

Sabathia, who is 9-6 overall this year and 17-8 in 32 career starts against the Twins, might have been saddled with a tough loss if not for Cano’s sizzling bat and Gardenhire’s strategy.

“He’s a great hitter,” Gardenhire said of Cano, who smoked a 1-2 pitch to right. “You’re trying to figure out different ways. The bottom line is you want him to chase. If you get pitches up in the zone, he kills it and he did it again tonight.

“P.J. was trying to throw a breaking ball in the dirt on that double. He was trying to bounce a ball to get him to chase it. If you miss him, you miss him. But you really don’t want the leading run on first base with no outs. But he left up again and that’s just the way Cano is swinging. He’s great a hitter and we’ve seen it for many years.’’

In the past six games, Cano is batting .583 (14-for-24) with four homers and 10 RBIs.

Asked if he was a manager would he pitch to himself in that spot, Cano smiled and said, “I am not a manager. … Yeah, I pitch to him.’’

After Robertson’s perfect eighth, Mariano Rivera recorded the final three outs for his 28th save in 29 chances.

After getting swept three games in Baltimore this past weekend, the Yankees can take four straight from the Twins today and go home with a 4-3 record on the road trip. Considering they have won 30 of the last 37 games against the Twins and Cano is carrying a lineup with many holes, the Yankees, who will start David Phelps, are in position to erase the Baltimore memory.

Especially if Gardenhire takes his chances against Cano again.

george.king@nypost.com