MLB

Yankees’ Burnett says fun leads to success

What comes first? Fun or success?

Watching Yankees starter A.J. Burnett labor last week in Chicago, there were no signs of either when he couldn’t qualify for a victory despite being handed a 13-1 lead.

Tonight when the enigmatic right-hander faces the Angels at Yankee Stadium, he would like more bite in his filthy curveball and his above-average fastball to paint the black.

And he is looking for something else.

“I know it’s my job and I know I get paid a lot of money,” Burnett told The Post. “But I have to enjoy it. I have to find a way to have fun.”

When a pitcher hasn’t won in 40 days (six starts) it’s hard to enjoy anything. Since his last win on June 29, Burnett is 0-3 with a 6.00 ERA and has allowed 39 hits and 18 walks in 36 innings.

Hence, the distrust in the Yankees universe of a pitcher who is in the third season of an $82.5 million contract and was 10-15 with a 5.26 ERA last year.

Burnett vowed that tonight we are going to see a different pitcher than we did against the White Sox when he said his focus wasn’t on himself.

“I can’t [care] about what hitter is up there,” Burnett said. “It’s about me on the mound.”

Barring a colossal collapse, the Yankees are headed to the postseason as the AL East winner (they were a game behind the Red Sox before Boston played the Twins last night) or the wild card (they are seven games ahead of the Angels).

Yet after ace CC Sabathia, there are questions about who would be the Game 2 starter. The Yankees would love that to be Burnett. But, despite his $16.5 million salary, he was dropped from the ALDS rotation last year against the Twins and made one start against the Rangers in the ALCS.

If the ALDS opened this week, Bartolo Colon, Ivan Nova and Freddy Garcia could fall in behind Sabathia and ahead of Burnett in a best-of-five series.

Last Wednesday night’s debacle was still eating at Burnett on Sunday inside the cramped Fenway Park clubhouse. Soaked in sweat from a bullpen session in which he concentrated on locating fastballs, Burnett insisted his inability to realize his curveball wasn’t working cost him against the White Sox because he kept trying to find it.

“I let [the win] go,” said Burnett, who allowed seven runs and 13 hits in 4 1/3 innings. “They didn’t beat me, I lost the game. I wished somebody would have grabbed me and shook me. I tried not to lose the game.”

As Burnett was giving up hit after hit, none of the infielders visited him on the hill to pat him on the back or simply give him a breather. The frustration surfaced when he slapped the ball in Joe Girardi’s hand leaving the mound and in the tunnel from the dugout, where he ripped his shirt off.

In talking to catcher Russell Martin, the pair have added a challenge for tonight.

“Let’s see how many bats we can break,” Burnett said. “Let’s find a way to have fun.”

On the first day of spring training, Burnett said that on the way home from the ALCS in Texas he realized how important he was to the Yankees last year when he failed to build on a 6-2 start.

Now, with his season traveling a similar route — he was 6-3 with a 3.86 ERA in early June and is now 8-9 with a 4.54 ERA — Burnett was asked if he still felt that way.

“I know I am,” Burnett said. “I just have to get the consistency of being me on the mound.”

Maybe then the fun will follow, but the answer to the question is fun follows success.

Right now the Yankees would love to see Burnett having a blast.

george.king@nypost.com