Yankees down Giants amid rumors of trades
The Yanks end their homestand with a 5-2 win over the Giants and speculation about possible trades.
Aroldis Chapman and the rest of the New York Yankees dressed in their Sunday best for a flight to Houston following a 5-2 win over the San Francisco Giants that completed a 6-4 homestand.
Who returns in 10 days is unclear.
“We’re very much in this,” Brett Gardner said. “There’s no point in me sitting here campaigning for us to stay together.”
Nathan Eovaldi (9-6) pitched shutout ball into the seventh inning, Carlos Beltran and Mark Teixeira hit early solo home runs of Jeff Samardzija (9-6) and Chad Green pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings.
But the Yankees (50-48), who matched their season high of two games over .500, may have shown their management too little, too late to prevent a selloff of veterans ahead of the Aug. 1 deadline for trades without waivers. New York trails AL East-leading Baltimore by 7 ½ games and is 4 ½ games behind Toronto for the league’s second wild card, with the Astros and Detroit also ahead.
Chapman has 20 saves in 21 chances and his fastball, at up to 105.1 mph, has entertained fans focusing on the scoreboard velocity of every pitch.
“It’s tough. I feel comfortable here. I feel like part of the family here,” he said through an interpreter, adding the Yankees have been talking to his agent.
the bullpen ChapmanYankees’trio withNo has Runs Dellin formed DMCBetances and Andrew Miller, which has 203 strikeouts in 123 2/3 innings. Chap- man, pitcher Ivan Nova, Beltran and Teixeira are el- igible for free agency at the end of the season; Miller, signed through 2018 at $9 million, also is of interest to contenders.
“We don’t want to see him go,” Teixeira said of Chapman. “We’re trying to win games, and he’s a big part of that.”
Chapman maintained he could be dealt and still re-sign with the Yankees as a free agent during the offseason.
“Oh yeah, if there’s a possibility, and God willing, yes,” he said. Beltran hit his teambest 21st home run in the first and Teixeira doubled the lead on the second with his 200th home run for the Yankees, his sixth in 20 games since returning from the disabled list. Teixeira and Jacoby Ellsbury wore white Ken Griffey Jr. Nike Swingman spikes with gold soles as a tribute to Junior’s induction Sunday into baseball’s Hall of Fame. New York in chasedthe sixth, Samardzija when Ellsbury grounded into a run-scoring double play, Starlin Castro singled in a run and Didi Gregorius hit an RBI double. Making his second start following a brief bullpen banishment, Eovaldi used a new cutter for the second time in the homestand. He escaped basesloaded, one-out trouble in a 33-pitch fourth inning when Mac Williamson fouled out and Ramiro Pena grounded out.