The Alfonso Soriano for Corey Black deal late last month doesn’t guarantee the Yankees a date for October, but it has delivered a pulse.
For the second straight night Soriano placed the Yankees’ teetering postseason chances on his sinewy shoulders Wednesday night and carried them to an 11-3 victory over the free-falling Angels in front of 38,379 at Yankee Stadium.
Twenty-four hours after homering twice and driving in six runs, Soriano hit two more homers and collected seven RBIs to lead the pounding of Angels ace Jered Weaver.
The Yankees’ fourth straight victory and fifth in sixth games went to Ivan Nova who was the recipient of the offensive explosion and improved to 6-4 with his second straight victory.
In 7 ¹/₃ innings Nova gave up three runs and 10 hits.
Soriano crushed a grand slam off Weaver over the center-field fence in the first inning and got the right-hander for a two-run blast in the fifth that landed deep in the left-field seats.
Soriano also drove in two runs with an RBI double off Weaver in the second when the Yankees scored four more runs to take an 8-0 lead.
The seven RBIs were a career high for Soriano who established the milestone by driving in six runs Tuesday night.
Robinson Cano singled in the first four plate appearances and finished 4-for-4 with a walk.
“I saw his pitch selection better and made better passes on the ball,’’ Joe Girardi said of Soriano, who reached 2,000 career hits with a homer Sunday. “I really thought 2,000 was in his head and he was in a hurry to get it out of the way and he chased a lot of pitches. Once he got by it he seemed to relax a little bit.’’
Weaver opened the night on a four-game winning streak and hadn’t lost since July 13. He was also 6-3 with a 5.19 ERA in a dozen starts against the Yankees.
“When he makes a mistake and he gets part of the plate you have to put a good swing on it,’’ Girardi said of Weaver, who gave up nine runs and nine hits in five frames and is 7-6. “He has a number of different weapons he can go to. He cuts it, he sinks it and moves his fastball all around. When he makes a mistake you have to hit it.’’
Judging by the putrid outing Weaver made plenty of mistakes and the Yankees didn’t miss many.
george.king@nypost.com