Baby Bombers deliver again in win over Rays
Torres’ bat, German’s arm propel Yankees
NEW YORK — For a team with some of the majors’ biggest stars, the New York Yankees are getting many of their most critical contributions from a remarkable group of unflappable youngsters.
Gleyber Torres hit another threerun homer, fellow rookie Domingo German struck out a career-high 10 for his first major league win, and the Yankees edged the Tampa Bay Rays 4-3 in the opener of a fourgame series Thursday.
“All the young guys we have, they’ve been excelling,” reliever Dellin Betances said. “… You’re going to be seeing them for a lot of years.”
Aaron Hicks also homered off Blake Snell (8-4) as New York beat the blossoming left-hander for the second time this season and ended his four-game win streak.
German (1-4) allowed Matt Duffy’s home run on his first pitch but recovered to strike out the next three batters.
Making his seventh start in place of injured Jordan Montgomery, the right-hander permitted three runs, five hits and two walks in his 19th career appearance.
Chad Green and Betances set up Aroldis Chapman for his 19th save in 20 attempts.
Wilson Ramos and Joey Wendle each had an RBI single for the Rays, who were coming off a three-game sweep of Toronto.
Duffy tried to score from first on Ramos’ run-scoring single in the third when the ball caromed off left fielder Giancarlo Stanton after he charged in for it.
Stanton chased down the ball and fired a strike to catcher Gary Sanchez at home plate, nailing Duffy for the final out of the third to keep the score 2-0.
The slumping Sanchez had an eventful night on defense. He also dropped a foul popup for an error, allowed a wild pitch that put a runner in scoring position and threw out Carlos Gomez trying to steal third with one out in the seventh.
Hicks hit an opposite-field homer in the fifth. Aaron Judge singled and Sanchez drew a two-out walk before Torres drove a 96 mph, full-count fastball to left for his 13th homer since being called up from the minors on April 22.
This was the first one that didn’t come from the No. 9 hole — Torres batted fifth as the Yankees started nine right-handed hitters against Snell.
The rookie has five three-run homers, most among big league hitters.
Making a strong bid for his first All-star selection, Snell struck out eight and threw 105 pitches in five innings. He was 3-0 with a 0.38 ERA in his previous four starts.