By now, Ed Yarnall was supposed to have made a few starts as the No. 5 man in the Yankee rotation. That’s what they had envisioned before the season began and this is the Yankees, so, the plan would work, right?

Nope. Instead, reality got in the way. Yarnall imploded during spring training and was sent to Triple-A Columbus. Last night, he finally made his 2000 Pinstripe debut and did well.

“He was fine,” Joe Torre said. “He looked a little anxious and he should have been. He needs to pitch.”

“I felt pretty good out there,” said Yarnall after he tossed two scoreless innings in last night’s 6-1 loss to the Twins at the Stadium. “There’s always pressure pitching in the big leagues, but it wasn’t that tight a spot. I wasn’t totally pleased, my location wasn’t great, but I’m getting back.”

Unfortunately for the 24-year-old, he will likely be getting back to Columbus when Andy Pettitte returns from the DL today. The Yankees would rather have him starting in the minors rather than coming out of the bullpen. Still, last night was another positive sign in Yarnall’s reclamation.

“When I was down in Tampa [at spring training], I was really down and depressed,” said Yarnall, whose ERA reached a ridiculous 22.18. “I did poorly at a really bad time. You don’t get very many opportunities to make a rotation as a young ball player, especially with this club. I just had a run of bad luck.”

Then Yarnall must have remembered what his spring ERA was and smiled.

“Actually, it wasn’t a run of bad luck, it was a run of bad pitching,” Yarnall admitted. “But I didn’t write myself off and obviously they didn’t, either, since I’m here now.”

And although this stay will probably be brief, it’s another positive sign for the lefty. Yarnall was 1-0 with a 3.71 ERA in three starts with Columbus prior to his recall and was understanding about his possible demotion.

“I’m not going to go to Columbus and pout,” Yarnall said. “That’s baseball. Whatever the organization decides to do is fine with me.”

Despite the horrific start, Yarnall has been able to keep things in perspective, not always the easiest thing to do for an inexperienced pitcher. After all, the season isn’t even a month old. When reminded of that, Yarnall acknowledged that things weren’t all that bad.

“Basically, it was four bad outings,” Yarnall said of his spring training. “It only amounted to about 10 or 12 innings. I didn’t get that much work in. That was partly my fault. I mean, when you give up 10 runs in the first inning [as Yarnall did in one of his appearances] you can’t really expect anyone to keep you out there. Even if I had done great, that wouldn’t have been enough to get a good read on.” To say that Yarnall’s troubles this year was a positive would be like saying a black eye is good because you’ll see better out of the other one. But it should make him stronger.

“To go through something like this and come back, you have to be mentally tough,” Yarnall said. “These things happen to people and then they’re done. I don’t think that’s going to happen.”