The Yankees are about this time of year. Other teams want to make the playoffs. But the Yankees define themselves by winning championships. It is a title or nothing in The Bronx.
Which is why their legends are galvanized in the postseason, not from April to September. They are the only organization with both a Mr. October and a Mr. November.
And on the first day of October, 2011, Ivan Nova and Robinson Cano made inroads toward becoming the latest Yankees legends of the Fall.
PHOTOS: ALDS GAME 1: YANKEES 9, TIGERS 3
Nova, working as kind of the Game 1 and 2 starter, excelled while Cano thrived as the No. 3 hitter as the Yankees critically won a Justin Verlander-CC Sabathia matchup that had almost nothing to do with the aces.
In the end, the Yankees hardly could care that it took 27 hours and 25 minutes from first pitch to last to win Game 1 in a 9-3 romp over the Tigers. That is because they received such favorable results on two big issues that could matter throughout this month: Nova appears unfazed by this stage and Cano is absolutely the right man at the right time to be hitting third in the Yankee order.
But here is the cold-water portion of the program. Since the advent of the Division Series, this represents the 10th time the Yankees have won the opener. Yet in five of the previous nine occasions they wound up losing the best-of-five. That includes 2006 when they beat Detroit 8-4 in Game 1 at the old Stadium and never won again.
Thus, the Yankees should feel good, but not giddy. They still must maneuver through this series with Freddy Garcia and, perhaps, A.J. Burnett playing as big a part as Sabathia. But winning the game Sabathia started — and conversely Detroit losing the game Verlander started — is a huge edge to the Yankees.
So is the fact that the Yankees ultimately found a way to play their offensive game of patience against the precise Tiger starter Doug Fister and power against normally homer-depriving reliever Al Alburquerque.
Fister had not walked a man since Sept. 11, a span of 87 batters, before he issued two in the faithful sixth including one to Curtis Granderson to load the bases and lead to Fister’s removal. Alburquerque had not allowed a homer in 2011 before his second pitch last night that Tigers manager Jim Leyland described this way: “a slider that didn’t do anything and one of the best hitters in baseball hit it out.”
That would be Cano, who turned a 4-1 game to 8-1 by going deep to right. Before the 2006 Division Series, Leyland had dubbed the offensively adept Yankees “Murderers’ Row Plus Cano” because the second baseman hit ninth then. But his two doubles, grand slam and six RBIs last night emphasized who the key Murderer is now. Cano had two hits, none for extra bases, and no RBIs in that four-game Division Series loss in 2006. He certainly has grown up to handle these responsibilities.
The Yankees needed Nova on a much faster learning curve, especially once Sabathia was lost in Game 1 after just six outs; and Nova had to do it on a bizarre baseball day.
A few hours before Nova pitched Andy Pettitte’s wife, Laura, had practiced singing the National Anthem, except there would be no Anthem. It had been sung the previous night to begin Game 1 — and Game 1 was continuing last night. Laura will now sing today for Game 2 with Andy throwing out the first pitch.
And the Yankees will begin with a series lead because Nova did such a good rendition of Pettitte.
“He seemed calm to me,” Derek Jeter said of Nova. “But knowing his demeanor and attitude that was not a surprise.”
Nova overcame the strange proceedings and early lack of command of his slider to hold Detroit without a run until the ninth inning. The Tigers helped with bad base running and undisciplined at-bats, but they were mainly a veteran lineup succumbing to the moment.
That Nova was unflappable in his first postseason game is encouraging for the Yankees who are looking for trustworthy rotation work behind Sabathia and got it from a 24-year-old who literally came in behind Sabathia in this elongated Game 1.
“It’s the same game,” Nova said. “A little bit more pressure, of course, but it looked the same for me.”
For Nova and Cano, it looked like a first step toward what every Yankee craves this time of year — to be a legend of the Fall.
joel.sherman@nypost.com