Ken Davidoff

Ken Davidoff

MLB

Yankees back to old ways in AL slugfest

So is this the Yankees’ new road map to the playoffs?

In a season that began with them squeaking past opponents in pitching duels and managerial chess matches, are they now going to try to mash their way into October?

Will they have any other choice?

The Yankees opened this critical homestand with an 8-5 outgunning of the Orioles, as Alfonso Soriano and Ichiro Suzuki went deep and the lineup accounted for 12 hits, three walks and a hit batter. By the time Mariano Rivera locked the door behind him, retiring Nate McLouth on a flyout to left field, Rivera and his teammates could celebrate this important victory and temporarily overlook the fact CC Sabathia unraveled after a dynamic first three innings.

Who would have thought these Yankees, once scrappy by necessity, would be pounding dangerous opponents into submission? And that 60 percent of their starting rotation would have become so darn unreliable? And that, therefore, they might need to keep slugging like the “Too many darn home runs” Yankees of old?

“I hope so, and let’s get the pitchers right, too,” an ill Joe Girardi said after the game. “We have to click on all cylinders, basically. One night, we might score eight runs. The next night, we may not. And that’s when the pitchers have got to pick up the hitters.”

“If I can keep the guys in the game,” Sabathia said, “we have a good chance of winning.”

Sure, when your team puts up seven runs during your work shift, then you can allow five runs in 5 2/3 innings and say you kept your team in the game. Yet Sabathia, who retired the first 10 batters he faced, immediately gave back the 2-1 lead that Soriano’s two-run blast gave him in the fourth, allowing a three-spot to the O’s in the fifth.

And when the Yankees countered with five more in the bottom of the fifth, jumping out to a 7-4 advantage, Sabathia still couldn’t quiet things down. When Baltimore picked up a run in the sixth and Danny Valencia (who homered off Sabathia in the fifth) came up as the tying run with two outs and a runner on first, Girardi correctly lifted his titular ace after only 86 pitches for reliever Shawn Kelley.

The inning ended with the 7-5 lead intact, and Alex Rodriguez added an RBI single for insurance in the seventh.

Sabathia admitted to being surprised by the early hook. He added: “I guess I can’t be surprised by anything that happens this year.”

Said Girardi of Sabathia: “He’s not used to coming out of games. But I felt it was time to make a move.”

Sabathia’s 2013 ERA jumped to 4.91, and when you combine his season-long struggles with the more recent travails of Hiroki Kuroda and the career-long roller coaster that is Phil Hughes, you’re putting quite a strain on your offense.

Sure, this offense suddenly can handle a little strain. Soriano now has a ridiculous 12 home runs in 127 at-bats as a Yankee. Mark Reynolds, the latest streaky player on fire, went 3-for-4 with two doubles and an RBI and now has a slash line of .316/.366/.553 in 41 plate appearances as a Yankee.

Robinson Cano returned from his left hand injury with two singles and a walk. It’s so much more than the April and May lineups that leaned heavily upon Travis Hafner and Vernon Wells.

When the Yankees fell behind 1-0 and 4-2, Soriano said: “We never lost the confidence. We have a very good lineup and very good offense. … I hope we continue hitting like we hit tonight.”

Nevertheless, winning high-scoring games by close margins isn’t really a better way of living than the old methodology of winning low-scoring games by close margins. Girardi moved Hughes out of his assignment tomorrow against Baltimore, pushing him back to Monday’s game against the offensively challenged White Sox and slotting the surging Andy Pettitte in tomorrow on his normal four days’ rest. Today, the suddenly reliable Ivan Nova takes the ball for the Yankees.

So maybe another offensive onslaught won’t be needed for the rest of this weekend. Perhaps they Yankees (71-63) can find a way to get all of those cylinders and leap over the Orioles (71-62), whom they now trail by half a game. Either way, who thought we’d be associating the Yankees with slugfests again any time soon?

The Yankees’ destination remains unclear, at best. Their journey, however, figures to be fascinating.