The Yankees’ superstar third baseman has been A-Lightning Rod in past postseasons.

He’s 4-for-41 (.098) with no RBIs in his last 12 playoff games, and has not gotten a hit in his last 15 postseason at-bats with runners in scoring position. New York’s unforgiving media and those tough-to-please Yankees fans will again dissect every pitch thrown Rodriguez’s way.

His teammates have been doing all they can to ease the pressure on Rodriguez, who is a lock to win his third AL MVP award after hitting 54 homers with 156 RBIs. Those numbers won’t mean anything when he digs into the batter’s box on Thursday and the Jake rumbles with noise.

“It doesn’t fall on Alex’s shoulders,” Johnny Damon said. “We can’t rely on Alex to be the man. We have to go out there and do our jobs. It starts with me at the top and goes all the way down to (Doug) Mientkiewicz in the nine hole.

“It falls on this whole team. We win and lose as a team.”

And the Indians feel like they have the better one.

Although they came out on the short end of almost every statistical matchup against New York, Cleveland’s players are confident they won’t crumble against the Yankees. Their 31-13 record since Aug. 13 — the day after being swept by New York — was baseball’s best and they showed poise down the stretch as they ran away with the AL Central.

This won’t be the same as playing the Mariners or Royals in September, but Kenny Lofton remembers a Cleveland team that held its own despite a lack of playoff experience.

“Look at us in 1995,” said Lofton, who was traded back for a third stint with the Indians in July. “We didn’t have many guys with postseason experience and we got to the World Series.”

In the past few days, Lofton, who has played in 84 playoff games — four with the Yankees — has been briefing his teammates on what to expect.

“I’ve told them to remember that it’s just a game,” he said. “It’s a game and the game doesn’t change. The only thing that changes is the result. We’ve got to look at it as it’s another game and another team you’re trying to beat, and that’s it.”

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