Walk leads to whiffs in Pineda’s best start of year

Michael Pineda was back in the clubhouse, jumping up and down and yelling at the TV when Chase Headley darted headfirst across home plate in the bottom of the ninth Thursday. The starting pitcher was nowhere near the action, a second straight hectic walk-off victory for the Yankees.

He didn’t get the win, but Pineda dealt six innings and alowed one run and two hits and struck out 12 — arguably his best start of the season in the Yankees’ 2-1 win over the ALbest Rangers. Pineda, who left a 1-1 game, logged his most strikeouts since May 10, 2015, in another airtight outing for the once-mercurial pitcher.

“Michael Pineda threw a hell of a game today,” Dellin Betances said.

Just four pitches into the game and the Yankee Stadium bleacher creatures still chanting the home team’s names, Shin-Soo Choo sent a fastball into the rightfield bleachers. It was the second consecutive game Pineda has allowed an early homer, last time to the Twins’ Brian Dozier in the second inning on Saturday, but also the second straight outing he’s prevented further damage.

Pineda escaped the first despite allowing two more runners, and proceeded to throw a perfect second and third with six of the first nine outs coming via swinging strikeouts. He credited the turnaround, along with his lethal slider, to amping himself up by calling himself names while he paced on the mound.

“I tried to be aggressive with the fastball and [Choo] got it,” Pineda said. “The only thing is, walking on the mound, you say, ‘OK, Big Mike, keep your head up and be focused right now.’ … I like talking to myself on the mound.

“I really threw the ball good and the slider [was] good today.”

Joe Girardi considered keeping Pineda in past the sixth, but the righty was at 92 pitches on a scorching hot day and the threeheaded bullpen monster of Betances, Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman was fresh. That trio handled the last three innings with relative ease, combining to allow only two hits and striking out four the rest of the way.

The win means more to the Yankees’ big picture than it does Pineda’s — salvaging a series split with the game’s second- best team, erasing a deficit two days in a row to get back to .500 and grabbing some momentum ahead of a three-series road trip.

But for Pineda, who has now gone six straight starts allowing three runs or fewer, it was another step in the right direction.

“He was really good today,” Girardi said. “That might’ve been, and probably was, his best start of the year.”