Lance Berkman? I never doubted him for a second.

“Fat Elvis,” who served as a punching bag for Yankees fans for much of the season, came up huge on Thursday evening in Game 2 of the ALDS. He went 2-for-4 with a homer, a double, two RBI and scored twice.

Not to be outdone, his good friend Andy (Can I) Pettitte was great on the mound as he went seven innings and gave up two runs on five hits with four strikeouts with one walk. He settled down after a shaky start and dominated the Minnesota lineup; he threw 36 pitches over the first two innings and 14 the next two. He finished with 88 pitches and 58 strikes. In his last nine starts against the Twins coming in (including postseason), Pettitte was 8-0 with a 2.54 ERA and .238 BAA. He moved to 19-9 overall in the postseason.

Perhaps the highlight of the evening for Yankees fans was when the lineup roughed Carl Pavano up for four runs on 10 hits in six-plus innings of work.

Now I’m not one to complain about umpiring after a win, but look at Pettitte’s strike zone compared to Pavano’s. That’s ridiculous. ROBOT UMPS FTW.

The Yanks have now beaten the Twins eight straight times in the playoffs…The only Twins pitcher to beat the Yankees in ALDS history is Johan Santana.

Prior to Thursday, Mo’s postseason ERA was 0.735 with a .772 WHIP in 134 2/3 innings. He pitched an inning of one-hit relief in Game 2 to get his 41st career postseason save.

I hate to bring you down with this stat, but the last time Mo collected postseason saves on back-to-back days was in Games 1 and 2 of the 2004 ALCS.

The Yanks will send Philthy to the mound on Saturday in Game 3 at home against Brian Duensing to try and close things out.

LET’S GO YANKS!!!!