So we’re even for the ALCS, right?

No. Of course not. But it was a pair of great 12-4 wins. It was the first time all season they scored 10-plus runs in back-to-back games.

Tex led the offense with a 3-for-5 showing. He hit a pair of dingers, drove in four runs and scored three times. He homered from both sides of the plate for the 11th time in his career, which ties him with Chili Davis and Eddie Murray for the most all-time; The Mick did it 10 times. It was his second two-homer game in the last 11 days and in his last 10 games he’s hitting .290 (9-for-31) with five home runs, 15 RBI, eight runs and two doubles.

He’s tied for the major league lead (Grandy and Bautista) with 21 taters and now has nine straight years with at least 20 homers and has 296 career long balls, the quickest to that “mark” by a switch hitter in the history of MLB. Tex is now 7-for-15 with three homers lifetime against Derek Holland.

Grandy and he have combined for 42 homers, better than four teams (Padres, A’s, Twins and Astros).

The entire Yankee infield homered in the win, with Ramiro Pena, Eddie Nunez and Cano all going yard. Cano also stole a base to record his first career game with a homer and a stolen bag and establish a new career high with steals at six. He finished with three RBI. It was Pena’s second career homer, with the other coming on 9/28/09 against the Royals. Nunez went 2-for-4 and stole a pair of bases on what was his 24th birthday (it’s also Pettitte’s 39th birthday). Those two finished with a pair of RBI each.

You know the offense is clicking when Frankie Cervelli drives in a run and steals a base. Grandy and Andruw Jones drove in a run apiece as well.

A-Rod scored once and stole a base. In doing so he tied Ted Williams for 16th on the all-time runs scored list with No. 1,799 and matched his stolen base total from last season (four). Not Williams’ total, he’s frozen.

It was just an offensive onslaught. The pitching, not so much. SuperNova (6-4) was far from super as he went 5 2/3 innings and gave up four runs on seven hits with two punchouts and three walks. He really didn’t deserve the win, but what can you do? His ERA is 4.46 and you have to figure that if they had a healthy rotation he would be out of the picture.

Luis Ayala threw 1 1/3 innings of two-hit, one-walk ball with a strikeout before Cory Wade (see below after the jump) and Jeff Marquez threw an inning each with the latter giving up one hit.

It was rather surprising that they hit like they did because Girardi used a highly unorthodox lineup for the game. Swish led off because of his OBP against lefties and because Girardi wanted Gardy to get a day off. Swish Dog made his 30th career start in the leadoff role and his first since 5/4/08 with the ChiSox. He went 1-for-3 with a pair of walks and scored once.

Other news:

• Thursday’s starter is Brian Gordon, who will be added to the roster on Thursday. The Yanks also signed RHP reliever Cory Wade to the ML roster. He’s been pretty good in the minors this year for the Rays and Yanks but hasn’t pitched in the bigs since 2009 with the Dodgers. He’s put up some decent numbers in 82 career appearances but kind of shit the bed in ’09.
• So played catch on Tuesday but is still about a week away from beginning a throwing program. His chances of returning before the All-Star break are not looking good; in fact he has been moved to the 60-day disabled list and Kevin Whelan was sent down to make room for Gordan and Wade.
• Eric Chavez began running on a treadmill this week, which is a very good sign.
• Jeet won’t travel with the team to ChiTown and Cincy for the Yanks’ interleague series. Instead he’ll go to Tampa to rehab. I’m told this is fairly common because it’ll be easier for him to rehab.

Gordon will take on CJ Wilson tomorrow at 1:05 in the finale of this series.

LET’S GO YANKS!!!