Yankees move into first place despite rainout

BOSTON — The Yankees, assumed to be the American League wild-card team entering this weekend, find themselves in first place — and with their destiny now in their own hands. And that’s without having played a game since Wednesday night, when they lost.

With the Rays having lost the first two games of their series against the Royals, the Yankees — who saw Friday night’s game against Boston rained out — woke up Saturday with a half-game lead in the AL East. If they sweep the three games from Boston, they will be assured of winning the division title.

The Yankees and Red Sox will play a split doubleheader Saturday at 4:10 p.m. and 9:05 p.m. Friday’s starter, Andy Pettitte, will pitch the first game against Tim Wakefield. A.J. Burnett, perhaps with an ALDS roster spot on the line, will start Game 2 against Daisuke Matsuzaka.

Managers in general detest doubleheaders, this time of year especially. “It’s not our preference, but there’s nothing we can do,” Joe Girardi said. “You can’t argue with Mother Nature.”

It was a bizarre Friday night at Fenway. Shortly after a Yankees-Red Sox summit meeting — which included general managers Brian Cashman and Theo Epstein, Girardi and the umpires — under the shadow of the Green Monster at about 9:30 p.m., the tarp came off the field and a start time of 10 was announced.

But that was followed by another burst of rain, and the tarp came back on to stay. The game was called at about 10:30.

“You worry about playing a guy like a doubleheader,” Girardi said, also mentioning Derek Jeter. “There’s a number of guys you can play both games. It’s just something we’re going to have to decide. We’ll see how guys feel. We’ll just play it by ear tomorrow.” Girardi said players from both teams voted for the doubleheader to be played Saturday rather than Sunday. “You don’t want to play a split doubleheader Sunday,” said Girardi, who had no issue with how things were handled by the Sox or the umpires.

“We thought we were going to start and then it came back,” he said. “It just kept going and going. We did everything we could to play this game and they were great about it. We thought we had a start time at 10 o’clock and then we walked out and it was raining again.

The window had closed real quick.” With the series sold out, there was no way Saturday would be anything but separate admissions. “They’re going to get their gates, and we understand that,” he said. “That’s baseball now. You don’t want to lose the gate.”

Meanwhile, Burnett, who comes in 10-15 with a 5.33 ERA — a season he described Friday as “rubbish — said Friday he doesn’t feel entitled to anything.

“I’ve broken every record in the wrong direction for the Yankees this season,” said Burnett, whose ERA is the second-worst for any Yankees pitcher in history with enough innings to qualify for the ERA title (Terry Mulholland had a 6.49 ERA in 1994).

Referring to himself, he said: “It’s not like we have a Cy Young on the mound. Then again, I can go out there and throw a no-hitter at any time, so I have that in the back of my head, too. But I know there’s questions. I’m not oblivious to that.”

Does he think he’ll be pitching for a spot on the postseason roster Saturday? “I would think not,” he said, but he thought it was a fair question. “I’ve given a lot of reasons where you’d think so,” Burnett said. “I’m not going to look at it that way because I think that’s going to put added pressure on myself. My goal tomorrow is go out and feel more like A.J. than I have.”

He also said his goal is “to give everyone in here the peace of mind that, hey, we’ll be all right with A.J. in the postseason.” Burnett is very much in tune with fans who have judged his season harshly. “I’m here for a reason,’’ he said, “and I haven’t done crap to help this team this year . . . I just want the ball, whenever it is . . . Do I want it to happen? Heck, no. I want the ball.”