Girardi sees signs of Soriano emerging

NEW YORK -- Alfonso Soriano has always been one of the more streaky hitters around the league. He has been in a bit of a valley of late, but Yankees manager Joe Girardi senses some signs that Soriano is beginning to climb toward another peak.

"It seems like he's starting to swing the bat better again," Girardi said. "For me, he's always been a guy that's a little bit streaky. We know that. He had some hits the last couple of days. We could use it."

Soriano was 1-for-5 with a run-scoring single in the Yankees' 12-7 loss to the Mets on Tuesday, and has three hits in his last nine at-bats after residing in a 3-for-20 funk earlier this month.

"We've been scoring runs lately," Girardi said. "Lately, we've been having a hard time shutting the other team down. We'll take as many [runs] as we can get."