MLB

Patience pays off for Yankees’ Cano

A good fastball travels from a pitcher’s hand to the hitting zone in literally the blink of an eye.

It is not exactly the kind of time period in which you think about patience. Yet, Robinson Cano has the ability to delay and delay a decision. To let the ball travel. Such is the faith in his hands. Such is the speed of his bat. He possesses the ability to use those fractions of what already are milliseconds to determine location, speed, break.

“He is so good at waiting and waiting and waiting, and then all of a sudden exploding,” Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long said. “That is why I call him ‘The Cobra.’ Because he waits, and then he strikes in a more compact, more explosive way than anyone I have ever seen.”

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These days, Cano is as lethal as any hitter in the sport. He has become so much more adept at pulling the ball for impact. That is a function of experience, understanding his approach better, deciphering what pitchers are trying to do to him better, listening to the advice of mentor, Alex Rodriguez, who has counseled Cano over the years on the value of pulling the ball more in RBI situations.

But it also is about those seemingly supernatural skills to let a 90 mph fastball travel. To wait. To use his combination of hand-eye coordination, bat speed and strength. His last three homers at Yankee Stadium, including two Friday night, were pulled line drives that went out. That is a tribute, in particular, to his bat speed and strength because most players simply cannot muster the power to get that kind of carry on a line drive.

“The guy is the best hitter in the American League,” Toronto bench coach Brian Butterfield said. “I don’t think he has a hole. He has frightening hand quickness.”

The results honor the skill. Cano was second in the AL in homers (eight) and RBIs (22) and 10th in batting (.320). Yesterday, in a 5-4 victory over Toronto, he hit cleanup as the slumping Alex Rodriguez was given a day off. That the Yankees suffer little — if any — diminishment in production while one of the great cleanup hitters ever sits out speaks to where Cano is now.

Cano’s push for an MVP last year (he finished third) was abetted by the work he did when Rodriguez did not play. In 26 games as a cleanup hitter in 2010, Cano hit .324 with seven homers and 28 RBIs. Cano went 1-for-3 yesterday with a run, a stolen base and a hit by pitch.

“I don’t know that there is a ceiling for Robinson Cano,” Rodriguez said. “I’ll say this: I don’t think he has come close to his ceiling. I think his best is yet to come. We haven’t seen it yet; not even close.”

Cano said one key to improvement is getting on base more frequently. He only had three walks. And, yes, he is an aggressive hitter who still has work to do to swing at a higher rate of pitches in the strike zone.

But Cano also has this problem: Despite two strikeouts yesterday, he does not swing and miss an extraordinary amount and when he swings he tends to put the ball in play. In other words, unless the pitcher is working around him, Cano is probably going to make contact and hit the ball in fair territory before seeing four balls.

And because of those Cobra-esque skills, Cano is often going to hit a ball hard somewhere.

“He’s a nightmare, right now,” Toronto manager John Farrell said. “He has such good balance and hand-eye coordination. You can’t repeat strikes in the same place because he is going to make adjustments rapidly.”

Perhaps the most important adjustment has been of attitude. Cano came up with those hand-eye blessings. Now, Rodriguez says, “the first three years there were questions about Robbie’s work ethic, if he was doing enough to take advantage of his skills. Now he is one of the hardest-working guys on the team.”

So Cano has the formula: Hard work plus unique skill equal greatness.

“Honestly, I don’t know the limit on Robbie,” Long said. “This is what I know: When he swings at strikes, he doesn’t miss and the ball exits his bat with a force you just don’t see. So I guess when Robbie swings at strikes, the sky’s the limit.”

joel.sherman@nypost.com