Kevin Kernan

Kevin Kernan

MLB

Yankees now primed to take advantage of mediocre AL East

The Yankees are far from perfect, but for a change, they are not playing in the perfect division.

The AL East is a division of flawed teams, and the good news for the Yankees is they are not as flawed as the others.

If the Yankees had to deal with the A’s, who have scored 376 runs to the Yankees’ 291 and clobbered them over the weekend in Oakland, they would be in big trouble.

But this time, the Yankees can be thankful they are in a division that includes the Red Sox, Blue Jays, Orioles and Rays.

The division is here for the taking and now — having just completed a sweep in the first of five consecutive series against division foes — is as good a time as ever for the Yankees to make their move.

Thursday night’s 6-4 win at Yankee Stadium was the Yankees’ 16th straight home win over Toronto.

Now, the Yankees trail the first-place Blue Jays by 1 ¹/₂ games and are even with them in the loss column. They were 6¹/₂ games back a week ago Monday.

Asked his opinion of the division, manager Joe Girardi said, “It’s interesting.’’

That’s a nice way of saying it’s mediocre.

The Blue Jays have talent, but when they come to Yankee Stadium, they play some mindless baseball. And that started right from the beginning Thursday night when ex-Yankee Melky Cabrera managed to get picked off second base by David Phelps with one out in the first.

Phelps fought his way through seven innings, showing Tanaka-like toughness. That is what Masahiro Tanaka has taught his Yankees pitching mates. Make adjustments, be aggressive and don’t give in.

The bulldog mentality Tanaka has brought has flowed to the rest of the Yankees’ rotation, which is key for the Yankees. Chase Whitley wasn’t at his best on Wednesday night, but he beat 10-game winner Mark Buehrle.

And Thursday night Phelps put up another win. He gave up just two runs over seven innings on a night the bullpen was shorthanded.

After Phelps gave up a two-run home run to Cabrera in the third, the Yankees took the lead right back in the bottom of the inning on a sacrifice fly by Carlos Beltran, who also ripped a two-out RBI ground-rule double in the fifth.

Beltran, who hit a home run Sunday against the A’s, has had success after a talk about hitting rhythm with Reggie Jackson over the weekend in Oakland.

Now the Yankees will look to keep their momentum going when they play host to the Orioles for three games, starting with Hiroki Kuroda against Ubaldo Jimenez Friday night. The Yankees still have a problem with the fifth slot with Vidal Nuno, but considering all of the pitching injuries they have suffered, this rotation has settled in nicely.

The Yankees also are starting to gets some production from the Captain. Derek Jeter, who turns 40 Thursday, had two hits and an RBI and is holding his own in the second spot. More importantly, he has stayed healthy.

Jeter, who raised his average to .276, is hitting .405 over his last nine games. Over that span the Yankees are 7-2.

This isn’t the Jeter of old, but if he can keep up this pace, it will do in this division. He still brings his winning ways, as his old teammate Tino Martinez said.

“When he is in there, you feel like you have a chance to win every game,’’ Martinez said. “It’s hard to explain, but to really appreciate him, you have to play with him every day. Everybody outside just looks at the numbers, and puts a value on that, but you have to be around him every day to really appreciate him.’’

The Yankees are not overpowering, but they don’t have to be in this AL East. All they have to be is better than all the other flawed teams in one mediocre division.