Despite Criticism of Yankees, Relying on Power Is Not a Weakness However this season turns out for the Yankees - and if the Baltimore Orioles never lose again, it will not end well - they should never apologize for their style of play. When Manager Joe Girardi declared recently that the Yankees were not the Bronx Bunters, it was more than a snappy line. It was something to relish. The last time the Yankees won the World Series, in 2009, they set a franchise record for home runs, with 244, and led the majors in that category. This year's team also leads the majors, and was on pace to hit 243 home runs before facing the Boston Red Sox on Thursday. These Yankees are the first team in baseball history to homer in at least 116 of the first 142 games of a season. To be sure, it takes a certain discipline to perfect the art of bunting and stealing bases and manufacturing runs. Those are useful elements for a successful team, when the situation calls for them. But the home run is always a good play. "I feel like in baseball, no matter what, there's always something you or a team can't do - even the best players and the best teams didn't do something," said Curtis Granderson, who has 37 homers and batted seventh for the Yankees on Thursday. Right now, the word on us is that we score a lot of runs with home runs. I don't know; there could be a lot worse things to talk about with us. Granderson is not having a great season. He strikes out too much and came into Thursday's game hitting .235. But he also has the most home runs in the majors since the start of last season. He is an elite power hitter, whether he acknowledges it or not, and players like that can take over games. On Sunday, Granderson homered and drove in five runs to beat Baltimore. On Wednesday, he drilled a two-run homer and a solo shot in a 5-4 victory at Fenway Park. The Yankees also slugged their way to their other runs, with a two-run homer by Robinson Cano. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it was the first time the Yankees had won despite going 0 for 13 with runners in scoring position since May 31, 1961, when Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris went deep in another one-run game at Fenway. Futility in the clutch is a bad strategy, of course, but home runs can make up for almost anything. Ask Billy Beane, the Oakland general manager, why the A's are winning this year, and one reason, he will say, is a lineup loaded with home run threats. Ask Beane's Baltimore counterpart, Dan Duquette, about the Orioles" success, and he will also point to their power. Only two American League teams, the Yankees and the Central-leading Chicago White Sox, have hit more homers than the Orioles. "They have some boppers, and their field allows that to happen, too," said the Yankees" Steve Pearce, who spent part of this season with Baltimore. They play at a hitter-friendly ballpark and they've got guys who can hit. It can be hard at times, just to have a team full of home run hitters, and sometimes you need to move runners. But it's good to hit home runs. It's the quickest way to put up runs. Sometimes that's the thinking, like if we're down by three: "Man, all we've got to do is get the tying run to the plate, and we've got a chance." " The notion that home run teams shrivel in October rests on the theory that postseason games are taut pitching affairs. Sometimes they are, but not always. In the last World Series, the St. Louis Cardinals won games by scores of 16-7 and 10-9. The year before, the San Francisco Giants won games by scores of 11-7 and 9-0. Last fall, the Yankees" Casey McGehee played for the Milwaukee Brewers, who led the National League in homers. But they met their match in the N.L. Championship Series, when the Cardinals slugged with them and won games by scores of 12-3 and 12-6. The Brewers were supposed to have strong starting pitching, but the Cardinals chewed them up. "Ninety percent of the time, the teams in the postseason have better pitchers - their staffs are deeper, and that's the reason why they were able to get to postseason," McGehee said. But at the same time, you look at how many runs are scored, even in the postseason. They've still got to throw it over the plate, and if they make a mistake and your guys have power, you've still got that chance of changing the game. The Yankees led the majors in homers last season, too, and lost in the first round to the Detroit Tigers, who hit one more homer than the Yankees did in the fifth and deciding game. The Texas Rangers, who finished second in the majors in homers, took the A.L. pennant. Since 2004, when steroid testing with penalties began, every World Series team but one (the 2005 Houston Astros) has hit more home runs than the league average total. With home runs a rarer commodity, the Yankees" extreme power edge should give them a strong chance to do damage in the postseason. The trick, this time, is getting there.