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Robinson Cano has hidden in plain sight this year. Here, but not. At least not how we expected.
He hasn’t buried himself like, say, Ike Davis. No, Cano is too talented for that. But he also is too talented to have squandered all of the opportunities bestowed upon him for one-third of the season.
Cano has some numbers, but in the way an NBA player could sometimes score 20 points yet have limited impact, more garbage time than prime time.
It is fashionable and habitual to make Alex Rodriguez the fall guy of anything wrong with the Yankees. But Cano has been as responsible for the team’s clutch meltdowns as A-Rod. More, actually. This is Cano’s team now. Not Rodriguez’s. Cano is at the peak of his power. The days in which Rodriguez could carry the Yankees for a week or a month are almost certainly gone forever, no matter how much he promises that his magic is still available.
The baton has been passed. Cano is the most talented player on the most expensive team — and this is not exactly new news.
It is up to him to rise, especially in moments like last night, when the pomp and circus of the Subway Series arrives at the Stadium and so does Johan Santana for the first time since he upended the Mets’ no-hit hex the previous Friday. He needed 134 pitches to make history, so he was backed up two days to see if he could weave a Bronx Tale as audacious as the one he spun in Queens.
He moved to 19 straight scoreless innings after going 1-2-3 in the first. And, technically, he still had Johnny Vander Meer in sight even after walking Rodriguez on a full-count pitch to open the second. He then tried to get an 88-mph first-pitch fastball by Cano and, well, the no-hit and shutout stuff ended. Cano launched a two-run homer into the right-field seats.
In the third, again with A-Rod on first, but this time with two outs, Santana tried to go first-pitch slider. Like the fastball, it was up. Like the first time, it was launched for a two-run homer.
Cano, more than any Yankee, can make the game look easy. He does a drill practically before every batting practice in which a hitting net is put halfway across home plate and then, from about 40 feet, hitting coach Kevin Long whips underhanded pitches. It is a pull drill, the net forcing Cano to keep his swing quick and compact. It is not uncommon to see him flick one homer after another, so smooth and seemingly effortless that it reminds you of — forgive another basketball analogy — Ray Allen practicing 3-pointers, tickling the net rhythmically one after another.
That is what the homers off Santana looked like, as if they could have been part of his drill, such is the easy power that Cano can consolidate. In this way, Cano opened a floodgate. After his second homer, Nick Swisher and Andruw Jones made it back-to-back-to-back, and the Yankees were on the way to a win as easy as Cano’s swing, 9-1 over the Mets. For one of the few times so far in 2012, Cano had major impact.
“When you look at Robinson Cano, you see how talented he is and you know it is just a matter of time [until be breaks out],” manager Joe Girardi said.
Cano had been defying his talent. He normally handles lefties well, but had just one homer in 75 at-bats off southpaws before getting two on two pitches between the second and third inning off Santana. He is 8-for-54 (.148) with runners in scoring position this year — the second-worst average for anyone with 60 plate appearances in such situations; worse than A-Rod’s 9-for-54 (.167). Rodriguez has one hit in 10 at-bats with the bases loaded. Cano is 1 in 12 — the most at-bats in the majors with the bags full.
It is not farfetched to believe that with all the club’s on-base deficiencies, if just Cano were excelling the Yankees would be up a few games in the AL East.
For his part, Cano mainly offers his perma-smile, self-confidence and perspective. He talks about the four months left, not the two in the rearview mirror. He uses the words “positive” and “aggressive” a lot, and makes it clear he expects to be doing damage from here on. Against lefties and righties, runners in scoring position and not.
He is the Yankees’ main man now. No doubt. They need more of last night. Impact.
joel.sherman@nypost.com