His two hard singles started rallies, and Jorge collected his 1500th career hit today.

Bronx, N.Y., April 17, 2010 — There’s no better way to say it. Ignoring all the pregame reportage regarding the surging Texas Rangers and in particular hurler Scott Feldman, the Yankees couldn’t have treated the second-year hurler more rudely. After he was extended to 23 pitches in the first on a walk and a single, Jorge Posada drilled the young righthander’s first pitch of the second for a long single into right center. None of the following 37 pitches were hit particularly hard, but by the time it took Feldman that many to escape the second frame down 2-0, you knew his day was largely over.

A.J. Burnett, teaming with Jorge Posada like he’d been throwing to him all his life, quieted the Rangers’ bats while rarely needing to resort to his killer curve, and it was as if the Yankee defense was only taking the field to give the visitors a break between long, wearying innings. Posada began rallies in both the second and third innings, and the Yanks used three infield singles (of six on the day), a walk, a double, a stolen base, a throwing error and two home runs to take a 7-0 lead with one down in the fourth inning.

A look at the box score will show you that the visitors quickly battered Alfredo Aceves for three tallies in the top of the eighth on Nelson Cruz’s seventh home run of the young season, but this game was over long before that onslaught. Perhaps it could have meant something more had the Rangers done anything with the five hits they stroked against Burnett in his last three innings, but because he was up to the threat each and every time, Texas’s eighth-inning attack’s sole effect was to let them escape the ballpark with a respectable-sounding 7-3 loss.

That factor may have been significant, because Rangers pitching finally did quiet the bat of Robinson Cano, who has been wielding the hottest of sticks. You cringe when you think what the Yankee rallies could have been been had a few Cano line shots been added to each, rather than him suffering an 0-for-4. The first scoring rally, though impressive in the way it mounted Feldman’s pitch count, didn’t come close to knocking him off the mound. Curtis Granderson lifted a fly to deep center after the Yankee catcher’s single and Nick Swisher took a third strike, but the latter cost the Texas righty 10 pitches. Then Brett Gardner hit a soft hopper in front of Feldman to his left, but the throw he had to hurry with the Yankee speedster burning it to first pulled Kris Davis off the bag. Derek Jeter followed with a seeing-eye single to right, and the two runs scored on the second of two walks to Nick Johnson and Mark Teixeira’s infield single toward first.

The third-inning rally was shorter, but more damaging. Cano bounced out before another Posada line single, this one to left center. Granderson doubled the other way into the left field corner with Jorge holding at third, and Ron Washington replaced Feldman with righthander Doug Mathis. One out later Gardner reached on his second of three infield singles, this one to the shortstop hole, to score one and move Granderson to third. When Gardner broke for second on the first pitch to Jeter, Teagarden’s throw went into short center and Brett touched up at second as the Yankee center fielder scored. Two pitches off the plate later, Jeter drilled a deep home run to left and the Yanks had a 6-0 lead.

Two batters later, Alex Rodriguez lifted his first 2010 home run to right center with one down in the fourth. It could have been a battleship firing its cannons over the Rangers’ bow indicating there was more where that came from, and from that point on the Yankee offense consisted of three infield singles.

A.J. dominated the Rangers with hard stuff, barely needing to rely on his curve.

It hardly mattered. Michael Young had literally trickled an infield single to third in the first and Teagraden walked in the third. Retiring the visitors was coming easy for Burnett. He struck out two in the second, and then one each in the next five frames, six of the seven coming on swings and misses. But the Rangers started poking singles through the Yankee defense in the fifth once Davis led off with a double to left. Joaquin Arias’s single to short center moved him to third, but now that A.J. had some trouble before him, he kicked it up a notch, escaping on the first of two Teagarden strike outs, a popup to first and a fly to right. Two singles in the sixth were survived when A.J. got Cruz swinging for the third time and Mark Teixeira made a nifty grab on a soft foul toward the stands past the Yankee dugout. Tex continues to struggle at the plate, but he delivered a run with a rolling single, and walked three times two days ago; his glove and footwork in the field are in midseadon form.

Although Burnett threw just 14 of 28 first-pitch strikes, his 67/43 strikes/balls ratio was acceptable, and he coaxed 15 swings and misses, most of them with darting 93- and 94-mph heat. And he rewarded Girardi for allowing him to take the mound in the seventh after having already thrown 98 pitches by getting through it on 12 throws. Elvis Andrus reached him for a one-out single, but Julio Borbon bounced into a 6-4-3.

Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano discovered New York harbor on April 17, 1524, some 486 years ago. Young righthander Feldman may have approached the American mainland from the other direction, having been born in Hawaii. But with the traditional welcome the South puts out for visitors, it’s possible the Texas team may have been just as happy if Verrazzano missed the harbor at the mouth of the Hudson River back in the day. It’s clear they couldn’t have felt too welcomed in the Bronx Saturday afternoon.