Don’t fret: Yanks playoff berth a lock

BOSTON — At least you can say this about the Yankees right now: They’re not good. But they are fast.

One day after losing to the Red Sox in a game that took 2 hours, 15 minutes, the Yankees lost again Saturday, 4-1, in a cool 2:33 at Fenway Park.

We’re old enough to remember when Yankees-Red Sox games used to need 2:15 to get three or four innings in. We’re also old enough to remember when the Yankees and Red Sox were fighting for the 2018 AL East title.

That fight is probably over after the Yankees lost the first three of this four-game series. The Red Sox went into Sunday night’s finale with an 81/2-game lead, their largest of the season.

“That’s reality,” Yankees right-fielder Giancarlo Stanton said. “You’ve got to understand that.”

Can the Yankees overcome that deficit? Sure. But is it really in their best interest to try?

“There’s no question they’ve established themselves right now as the best team in this league,” Yankees Manager Aaron Boone said. “That said, I think if you walk through our room out there, to a man we know we can absolutely play with them. We know when we’re at our best, we can beat them.”

The current playoff format is set up to reward division winners and punish the wild cards. So the Yankees — who remain comfortably in the AL’s first wild-card spot, though less so in recent days — will have to play an elimination game against either Seattle or Oakland on Oct. 3 if they don’t overtake the Sawx.

The Yankees made it to the seventh game of the ALCS last season after getting in as a wild card. If one game against Seattle or Oakland scares them, then the Yankees aren’t good enough to have the “special season” Boone keeps saying they can have.

It’s hard to see specialness when your team gets blown out 15-7 on Thursday, gets one hit Friday and gets five hits Saturday.

Chance Adams gave the Yankees an opportunity by allowing three runs in five innings in his big-league debut. But after Rick Porcello skunked the Yankees on 86 pitches Friday, former Yankee Nathan Eovaldi stymied them on three hits over eight shutout innings.

The Yankees scored with two outs in the ninth against Craig Kimbrel on back-to-back doubles by Stanton and Didi Gregorius. Kimbrel walked Aaron Hicks and Gleyber Torres to load the bases, but got Greg Bird to fly out to center to give Boston its second consecutive 4-1 victory.

Yes, the specialness the Yankees had in the first half of the season has taken a leave of absence. It’s probably not a coincidence that they suddenly look mortal without Aaron Judge, who broke his wrist July 26.

The Yankees are 3-5 without the Big Fella and had to pull out all the stops to get those three victories against Kansas City and Baltimore. They appear to be no match for the Red Sox at the moment, much to the delight of the Boston fans who chanted “Yankees duck” (or something like that) in the ninth inning and had it pretty much be true until the late, unsuccessful rally against Kimbrel.

It may not always be like that. If the Yankees win the wild-card game, as things stand now in the AL, they will pack their bags and head right back to Beantown for a five-game Division Series. The Yankees wouldn’t be the favorite — especially since Luis Severino would have pitched in the wild-card game in this crystal-ball scenario — but the Red Sox wouldn’t be a lock, either. Funny things happen in the postseason.

We’re not in October yet. So what do Boone and Brian Cashman do today? Hold a team meeting? Fire the assistant hitting coach? Try to trade Sonny Gray for Mike Trout?

We say none of the above. Boone said he feels the “urgency” to win every day, but the rookie manager is good at keeping perspective. Cashman can try to improve the team around the edges, but there aren’t going to be any major additions with the non-waiver trade deadline having passed. Here are our recommendations:

■ Don’t panic.

■ Get Judge healthy.

■ Get Severino right.

■ Graciously give this round to the Red Sox.

■ Beat the other teams enough to keep a comfortable lead in the wildcard race.

■ Seriously — don’t panic.

The Yankees will return to Fenway on Sept. 28 for the final series of the regular season. A while ago, that was shaping up as a delicious battle royale.

Now, those games look like nothing more than a tepid preview of the real fun to come: The first Yankees-Red Sox playoff series since 2004.

Those playoff games should be good. And we guarantee they won’t be fast.