Holliday finds swing vs. Sale

BOSTON — Matt Holliday’s first few weeks with the Yankees haven’t exactly gone according to plan.

All it took for him to heat up offensively was a night against one of the top pitchers in the game.

The designated hitter, who entered the Yankees’ 3-0 win over the Red Sox in a 2-for-27 slump, had two hits and a key sacrifice fly at Fenway Park, as the Yankees got the best of lefthander Chris Sale.

Holliday knocked in Aaron Hicks for the first run of the game in the top of the fourth after a 10pitch at-bat and then drove in the second with a single in the ninth — which ended Sale’s night.

“He’s been around a long time,” Sale said of the sac fly in the fourth. “He’s as good as they get. I tried to bear down and needed to keep it in the infield or a strikeout there [in the fifth] and I didn’t get it.”

Instead, with Hicks on third and one out, Holliday drilled a 3-2 slider to left after four straight fastballs.

“I got a breaking ball and was able to get the barrel on it,” Holliday said. “And it went just far enough for [Hicks] to score. At that point, you try to put it in play.”

At this point of the season, Holliday is just trying to get going. He’s been in a season-long slump since signing a $13 million deal this offseason to provide protection in the middle of the lineup.

The 37-year-old still has just four extra-base hits on the year.

“You want to be productive,” Holliday said before the game. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a new team, the same team or an old team. For me, there’s nothing worse than having runners out there and not being able to come through. That’s what the stings the most. Whether I’m here in a new place or in my seventh year somewhere else, I’m trying to win and I feel like I’m letting people down. That’s hard to swallow.”

Figuring out the problem hasn’t been easy.

“It’s been a little frustrating,” Holliday said. “I feel good and I’ve been getting good pitches to hit. The problem is in the big leagues, the difference between having a really good result and not having any results at all is so small.”