NEW YORK — Yankees manager Joe Girardi was red in the face with anger, nose-to-nose in a screaming match with Cleveland counterpart Manny Acta after Mark Teixeira was whacked with a fastball.

Tired of getting hit by pitches — and losing to rival Boston — the fired-up Yankees took out their frustration on the skidding Cleveland Indians.

Alex Rodriguez hit a colossal home run, Curtis Granderson also connected and New York got back on track with an 11-7 victory Friday night in a game that quickly grew testy.

“Sometimes it doesn’t really matter if it’s on purpose,” Rodriguez said. “There’s no question, it was very important for us to bounce back and play our type of baseball.”

The Indians were unable to rebound from a 1-6 homestand that concluded Wednesday. Their once sizable lead in the AL Central remained at a game over Detroit, which also lost Friday. The Indians have lost 12 of 16.

Girardi and Acta got into a heated argument when both benches and bullpens emptied after Teixeira was hit behind the shoulder by a second-inning pitch from struggling Cleveland starter Fausto Carmona.

No punches were thrown and there appeared to be little pushing and shoving — if any. Plate umpire Dale Scott issued warnings to both teams, and there was no further trouble.

“I have respect for Manny. I actually had a nice exchange with Manny at 3 o’clock today,” Girardi said.

But that doesn’t mean there’s not some feistiness in me and when my guys are getting plunked, I’m going to protect them,” said Girardi, who gestured angrily at Carmona on the field. “I told him I thought he did it on purpose and I didn’t like it.”

Carlos Santana homered for the Indians in the opener of a four-game series that was the first meeting this season between the teams. It didn’t take long for both sides to get heated.

One pitch after Granderson hit his team-high 19th homer into the second deck in right to give New York a 4-0 lead, Carmona threw a pitch that was headed straight for Teixeira’s upper back.

Teixeira ducked down and was hit squarely behind the right shoulder as he crumbled to the dirt. The slugger slammed down his helmet, then yelled and gestured at Carmona as he got up.

“It’s just disappointing when you have a guy who gives up a long home run and is getting hit around a little bit and decides to throw one close to your head,” Teixeira said. “Anytime it’s a purpose pitch up near my head, near my neck, I don’t like that. … You want to send a message, just throw the ball low.”

Carmona declined to speak with reporters after the game.

The right-hander, who threw 14 of his first 18 pitches for balls and walked three in a 40-pitch first inning, motioned back following Teixeira’s response.

“I haven’t seen him so divorced from the strike zone as he was today in the two years I’ve been here,” Acta said. “His loading the bases in the first inning did him in.”

Girardi was the first Yankee out of the dugout, rushing onto the field to usher Teixeira toward first base and away from a potential fight. Soon the benches and bullpens had emptied as players streamed onto the field.

Both sides milled close together between the mound and first base. Acta moved into the fray and was trying to assure Girardi that Carmona did not hit Teixeira intentionally. But the managers quickly got into a heated, face-to-face argument as an umpire attempted to keep them apart, and Acta could be seen cursing at Girardi on a television replay.

“Normal baseball stuff. Heat of the moment. He’s defending his man and I’m defending my guy,” Acta said. “My goodness, the guy couldn’t throw 50 percent of his pitches for strikes. The other pitches, he just didn’t hit anybody, but he couldn’t throw strikes. I didn’t think there was anything to it.”

Five walks and four hits allowed by inexperienced relievers in New York’s injury-depleted bullpen prompted Girardi to bring in Mariano Rivera for the final two outs. He gave up a two-run single to Matt LaPorta, then closed it out.

Notes

Indians 2B Orlando Cabrera went 0-for-4 and remains one hit shy of 2,000. He was ejected by Scott for arguing a called third strike in the eighth. … Granderson is 17-for-39 (.436) with three homers against Carmona.