‘Terrible’ Teixeira busts out with HR in his return

After returning from his latest infirmary visit, Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira admitted two undeniable truths: he has been “terrible” this season and the team needs him to find some remedy for both his game and his health over the final two months. Teixeira made one other point: it all could turn around in a game or two. The Yankees fervently hope he’s 3-for-3 in observations. After his admission about his disappointing numbers, Teixeira, who sat the three previous games with an aching foot, smashed his eighth homer of the season in his second at-bat and walked twice Wednesday in the Yankees’ 5-0 wipeout of Baltimore at Yankee Stadium. “This has been brutal,” Teixeira said before the game. “I’ve been terrible and the only thing I can do the last two months is try to be healthy and get hot. I live off my hot streaks and I haven’t had one yet this year. So hopefully I can stay on the field … and help this team win some games.

“Usually, it’s one or two games you feel good and then you have two really good weeks. I’m not sure if I’ve played two weeks straight,” Teixeira said. “It’s been that kind of year unfortunately.”

Teixeira and the Yankees hope they witnessed the start of something hot Wednesday. After walking in his first at-bat, Teixeira drilled Yovani Gallardo’s first-pitch slider for a solo homer to right and a 2-0 Yankee lead in the fourth. Teixeira made it 3-0 by drawing a four-pitch, bases loaded walk in the sixth. He bounced out in the eighth.

“It was a good game. The walks were good too, obviously seeing the ball well,” said Teixeira, whose homer was his 199th as a Yankee. “Obviously home runs are always fun but the win’s the most important thing.”

“Teixeira” and “injury” have been partners since 2012. Teixeira, who has played 64 of the Yankees’ 94 games, was on the disabled list from June 4-25 with a right knee cartilage tear. In May, he battled neck spasms. Last season, an All-Star year, he was limited to 111 games. The biggest blow was a fractured shin, the result of fouling a ball off his leg.

His latest injury came Saturday, by his own foul ball off his left foot. A CT scan Sunday proved negative but he sat three games before being cleared for a return.

“I know what I’m capable of when I’m healthy and hopefully I can do that,” said Teixeira, who entered hitting a lousy .186. “I think our team needs me to be healthy and productive if we’re going to get where we want to get.” Manager Joe Girardi agrees. “It’s really important to our lineup. You see where he’s hitting in our lineup [fifth]. It’s really important he is productive and does the things we know he’s capable of doing,” said Girardi, who intends to give Teixeira more rest during the Yankees’ stretch run as a precaution against additional knee woes.

But he looked good against Baltimore.

“Really good and he had two walks and drove in a couple runs. It’s another big bat for us,” Girardi said. “It was good to see him hit a home run.”