BOMBERS KEEP BASHING BIRDS

The winningest pitcher in baseball may have to sacrifice that title to help the Yankees win a championship. Domingo German moved ahead of Justin Verlander by earning his major league-best 16th victory in the Yankees’ 8-3 win over the Orioles Tuesday night, allowing two runs in seven stellar innings in The Bronx. But with German set to surpass his season-high innings total in his next start, Aaron Boone could be forced to disrupt the rhythm of the top starter in his otherwise shaky rotation. “We can do a lot of different things,” Boone said. “It depends where we’re sitting two weeks from now, three weeks from now, four weeks from now. ... He’s somebody that we’ll watch closely. You could see his role potentially evolve in different ways as the final month and a half play out.”

No scenario — skipping starts, shortening starts, a six-man rotation — will be satisfying to the skipper or starter.

Since June 9, German (16-2) hasn’t left a game with a loss, giving him a .889 win percentage, which trails only Ron Guidry’s 1978 Cy Young campaign (.893) in team history.

The right-hander asked to minimize the absence of ace Luis Severino has come closest to replacing him, holding the best ERA on the staff (3.96) — the only sub-4.40 ERA in the rotation — while pitching on pace to become the franchise’s first 20-game winner in eight years (CC Sabathia).

Boone said a specific innings limit hasn’t been set, but the manager said the plan for the 27-year-old wouldn’t be as strict as a more inexperienced arm. German, who has now thrown 120 total innings this season, has never pitched more than 124 innings in a season.

“We haven’t even honestly gotten deep into those conversations yet,” Boone said. “We’ll probably get to a point — as we get some guys back we may alter some things — but honestly we feel like he’s strong right now and still has a lot left in the tank.”

After tying a career-high by pitching seven innings for the second time in three starts, German — who allowed five hits and one walk, while striking out seven, and throwing 93 pitches (65 strikes) — felt better than ever.

“I feel really good, really strong,” German said. “I feel healthy. I feel like I can pitch for a long time. I just feel that my body’s in the right shape and the right place to take on however many more innings there are to come.”

If German’s usage is limited prior to a potential postseason run, the right-hander just wants to know about it well ahead of time.