Yankees need to remember how to swing the sledgehammer

Back in the day, back when October success was a habit with the Yankees, regularly etched into the annual calendar alongside Columbus Day, Oktoberfest and Halloween, they would know exactly what to do now. They would know exactly how they would approach Game 3 of this American League Division Series when it resumes in Kansas City on Wednesday.

As the years have passed, there has emerged a narrative that those Dynasty Boys were so good, so dominant, that they simply rolled over teams. The passing of time tends to airbrush the Maalox moments from championship teams.

Sometimes, they did simply overwhelm all comers.

And sometimes they had to counterpunch. Sometimes they had to crush the spirit of upstarts who had the temerity to believe they might’ve gotten in the Yankees’ heads, gotten into their nervous systems. And just about every time, those Yankees not only had an answer but an immediate one. It was one of their superpowers.

They knew how to swing a sledgehammer.

So in 1998, down 2-1 in games to Cleveland in the ALCS, El Duque Hernandez wrote the first chapter of his legend: seven innings, 115 pitches, four hits in snuffing out Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome and friends. The Yankees didn’t lose again the rest of the playoffs.

So in 2000, after the Mets had taken Game 3 of the World Series and the Yankees had looked so uncomfortable that George Steinbrenner had the furniture from their Yankee Stadium clubhouse shipped across the Triboro to Shea, Derek Jeter hit a leadoff home run off Bobby Jones. Immediately, order was restored to the Subway Series. The Yankees didn’t miss another game that year, either.

So in 2001, Jeter executed his flip play in Oakland at a moment of the ALDS when it seemed the A’s were going to end the Yankees’ run at last. This was in the same stadium where, a year earlier, the Yankees faced a do-or-die Game 5, heard an Uber-confident Eric Chavez talk a little too much trash on the scoreboard during batting practice, and slapped a 6-spot in the top of the first.

The Yankees could use a little bit of that Wednesday — or a lot of that. Look, the Royals are a good club, a smart club, and they didn’t win Game 2 Tuesday night, 4-2, in a lottery. They won on merit. After it looked like Carlos Rodon might mow them down all night, they recovered to knock him out before the end of the fourth.

The Yankees offense, which has suffered through periodic brownouts all season, failed to hop early on nervous Royals pitching in the first innings of both games. They got away with it in Game 1. They couldn’t in Game 2. So instead of flying to Missouri with a hammerlock on the series, they go there knowing the Royals have to believe they have a shot.

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The Yankees need to dispel the Royals of that notion. Quickly. Vehemently. The easiest path for an underdog to send a favorite home early is allowing them to believe a little too much, hang around a little too long. Ask the Alabama football team what happens when you let Vanderbilt, believe and hang around.

“We’ve got to win two more games, it’s as crucial as that,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said 20 minutes after Gleyber Torres grounded out to Bobby Witt Jr. to clinch the game and tie the series. “It’s the playoffs. Every day is crucial. Hopefully we regroup [Wednesday], go take care of Game 3 since that’s the next thing in front of us.”

They need to. They need to make a statement in Game 3, the kind of statement that was there for them to be made all across the start of Game 2, one they could never quite seize. They got an early lead and Rodon coughed it up immediately. There was plenty of traffic, but a dearth of big hits. We’ve seen this out of the Yankees before this year, plenty.

Almost always, there have been answers. Almost always, before things could spin sideways too furiously, the Yankees righted themselves.

“It’s been a hallmark of our success,” Boone said. “Especially after the difficult ones. These guys are really confident and understandably so. We’ll be ready to go in Game 3.”

Back in the day, back in the good times, they always were. It happened too many times for that to be a mere coincidence. It happened in 2009, too, when a significantly different cast of characters snuffed out whatever hopes the Angels had in the ALCS by following a loss in Game 3 by pulverizing Anaheim in Game 4, 10-1. A week and a half later, they were rewarded with a parade

They were eloquent, elegant champions. But they were also stone-cold killers who specialized in Bully Ball when necessary. These Yankees could use some Bully Ball in them. Quick.