MLB

Dominant Kuroda key to Yankees’ success

Home after receiving the friendly service of Cleveland’s pitching staff, these are the April 2013 Yankees we expected to see.

And these April 2013 Yankees, as they displayed once again last night in The Bronx, can survive, perhaps even succeed, as long as their starting pitchers reach their respective potentials.

That’s why Hiroki Kuroda’s resplendent rebound ranks as the most important event of the weekend for Joe Girardi’s crew.

The Yankees’ No. 2 starting pitcher produced his first strong outing of the season, throwing a complete-game shutout in a 3-0 victory over the Orioles at Yankee Stadium that gave them a series victory over their pesky American League East challengers from last year. Such a triumph, which lifted them over .500 to 6-5, ranks as no small thing, given the trials the Yankees have endured since ousting Buck Showalter’s group in the Division Series last year.

“I think you have to be able to win all kinds [of games], because you can’t expect your offense to give you seven, eight-plus runs every night,” Girardi said after the game. “And we pitched pretty well in this series. You look at what CC [Sabathia] did [Friday night], you look at what Hiroki did and we threw extremely well. We have to win these types of games.”

In limiting the Orioles to five hits while striking out five and walking none, in not even allowing a Baltimore batter to reach second base until the ninth inning, Kuroda looked like the Yankees’ 2012 league-switching stud whose yearlong excellence blunted the impact of Sabathia’s two visits to the disabled list, Andy Pettitte’s seven-week DL stay and Ivan Nova’s regression. He pitched like the guy on whom the Yankees spent the most money this past offseason, convincing him to return for a one-year, $15 million commitment.

He presented the blueprint for what the Yankees need to hang around until their reinforcements arrive.

“It doesn’t change my job description as a pitcher, whether we have the guys or not,” Kuroda said through his interpreter. “So I still think that we do have a great lineup.”

The right-hander’s sinker was so effective that he generated 18 outs on the ground; he induced two more would-be groundouts that were misplayed by Kevin Youkilis and Jayson Nix. He lowered his ERA from 6.75 to 2.87.

Their rain-halved, two-game sweep of the Indians last week created the false impression the retooled Yankees could pound their opponents into submission as had been their modus operandi of recent vintage. As we all suspected at the time, that spoke more to lousy Cleveland pitching than to a Most Valuable Player campaign by Travis Hafner or Vernon Wells.

No, this weekend tasted more like reality. They scored five runs Friday night, giving Sabathia a well-earned victory, thanks primarily to a three-run fielding error by O’s center fielder Adam Jones. They put up three runs Saturday in a loss by Phil Hughes. And last night against Baltimore’s tough lefty Wei-Yin Chen, they surrounded a bunch of zeroes with a well-constructed fifth inning, as Brennan Boesch and Francisco Cervelli singled, Boesch went to third on Lyle Overbay’s flyout to right field and scored on Nix’s sacrifice fly to right and Brett Gardner lifted an unlikely, two-run homer off the right-field foul pole.

That proved more than enough for Kuroda, whose 2013 kicked off on a dreadful note when, starting the Yankees’ second game of the season against the Red Sox on April 3, he bruised his right middle finger while trying to grab Shane Victorino’s second-inning single. He recorded just 1 1/3 innings pitched and, given the rash of injuries that dominated the Yankees’ spring training, made us wonder whether their dark cloud had made the trip north from Tampa.

The 38-year-old made his next start, April 8 in Cleveland, and he picked up his first victory of the season in an 11-6 slugfest at Progressive Field. Nevertheless, he didn’t inspire much confidence as he had to throw 111 pitches to get through 5 1/3 innings, walking four and allowing five hits while giving up three runs.

“Obviously, I wasn’t able to get a good start to start the season,” he said. “I didn’t really feel good about it.”

That’s why Kuroda’s return to form brightened the Yankees’ spirits. Because they are going to need to win a nice chunk of games when they score three runs. Because Pettitte, while superb in his two starts so far, already saw his third start delayed (he’s scheduled to start Friday night in Toronto) by back spasms and tightness.

This game plan can work. It can work much more smoothly if the Kuroda of last night carries on to be the Kuroda we see most often in 2013.