Because Yankeeland must always, so far as is practicable, orbit George Steinbrenner, it was not a surprise when the Yankees’ principal owner emerged from seclusion to pronounce that manager Joe Torre’s job was at stake in last night’s game against the Cleveland Indians, won by the Yankees, 8-4, and that it will remain at stake in this series. Steinbrenner, in gratuitously demeaning a Hall of Fame leader, showed that even at 77 he retains all the charm, if not the vigor, of his youth.

Whether because they were playing to support their beloved old coach or, just possibly, because they were not facing one of the Indians’ pair of hellacious young 19-game winners, last night the Yankees played like the team that had come from 14.5 games back to challenge the Boston Red Sox in September. Forty-five-year-old Roger Clemens had nothing, leaving what may have been his last ever ballgame behind two runs after striking out Trot Nixon. Fortunately, 21-year-old Phil Hughes had plenty, striking out four in 3.2 innings and holding things close until the offense could come back, capped off by a three-run Johnny Damon home run in the fifth. The big hits came from new Yankees like Robinson Cano and vintage ones like Hideki Matsui, and the five-run lead was held by 22-year-old phenom Joba Chamberlain. There, essentially, is your 2007 season to date, summarized in a game.

For all the good feelings caused by any Yankees victory that thwarts the malignant designs of the increasingly Howard Hughes-like Steinbrenner, though, the situation remains grim for Torre. The Yankees will likely thrash Indians starter Paul Byrd like a dog tonight; he’s exactly the kind of soft-throwing righty the team simply shreds. The Indians, though, may be just as unkind to presumed starter Mike Mussina, at this point in his career the kind of crafty righty deep lineups like the Indians’ eat alive. And Joba or no, a battle of the bullpens is not necessarily a game the Yankees win, given the Indians’ surplus in electric young relievers. Should the Yankees win tonight, they’ll have to face probable Cy Young winner C.C. Sabathia in Cleveland. He didn’t dismantle them in Game 1, but Sabathia, who beat Minnesota’s Johan Santana five times just this year, will be up to the challenge of an elimination game.

And of course even a relatively unlikely Yankees comeback will not necessarily secure Torre’s job. There is an argument to be made (I’ve made it each of the past two Octobers) that the man’s time has simply come. He has been managing for a long time, and by the supposed Yankees standard that makes any season that doesn’t end with a world championship a failure, he’s failed a lot. Should the team not win the World Series this year or next, they’ll have gone through the entire Bush presidency without winning it all — poor return on an investment of well over $1 billion in player payroll over that time. This team will rely for years to come on the young pitchers who made their way to the majors this year, and they deserve a manager who’s just as surely theirs as Torre is Derek Jeter’s.

Had the Yankees lost last night, it should be noted, it would have been Clemens and Jeter, perhaps the two players most identified with the old man, who would have worn goat’s horns. The captain inexplicably threw away a routine groundball and hit into rally-killing, inning-ending double plays in each of his first two at-bats. It would have been, in its way, fine symbolism — Torre, undone at the last by the players who had done so much for him long ago, when the team was great and won every year.

What actually happened, though, was better symbolism. Having agitated against Torre in the past, I blush to say it, but the man trusted his young players last night and showed why he remains the best manager for this team. Like Alex Rodriguez’s volcanic season, Torre doesn’t get all the credit for the success of Cano, Chamberlain, Hughes, Chien-Ming Wang, Ian Kennedy, and Melky Cabrera. But surely he must get some.

Still more important, he surely must get some credit for the team’s recovery from the freakish plague of bad luck and injury that began the season. The Yankees, Steinbrenner seems to have already forgotten, were in last place, eight games under .500 and 8.5 games out of the wild card spot in the standings, as late as May 29. We’ve seen over the last week what kind of credit a manager gets for blowing a sure thing. Certainly a manager who does the opposite deserves some credit as well, and to be treated with respect in what may, perhaps even justifiably, be his last days with the team.

tmarchman@nysun.com