Seeing Dellin win battle big relief for Yanks

DELLIN Betances didn’t hesitate when asked on Monday how he felt about being named to the All-Star team for a fourth straight season. “Thank God the players voted last week,’’ he said. “I had a couple of tough games (since then).” Betances was smiling, but he wasn’t kidding. By Monday night, however, he and the Yankees could enjoy a laugh about his punch line, after the 6-foot-8 righthander shook off his recent control problems — sort of, anyway — to pitch a scoreless eighth inning when any little hiccup could have proven costly.

The Yankees were clinging to a 2-1 lead at the time, after a strong start by Masahiro Tanaka, and perhaps fearing the worst, as undependable as their bullpen has been lately.

Betances didn’t exactly breeze through the Blue Jays, either. In fact, he went to a full count on all three hitters he faced, and walked Josh Donaldson with one out — albeit on a questionable call.

But he also racked up two strikeouts, blowing a 99-mph fastball past Justin Smoak that Gary Sanchez turned into an inning-ending double play by nailing Donaldson trying to steal second.

It made for a huge moment, as a sellout crowd at the Stadium erupted, while Betances pumped a fist at Sanchez in appreciation of the one-hop laser throw to get Donaldson.

Then the Yankees scored four runs in the bottom of the eighth to make for a laugher… except Aroldis Chapman promptly gave up two runs and looked anything but sharp, before holding on for a 6-3 victory.

So the bullpen continues to give Joe Girardi an ulcer, even on night when it gets the job done. More than anything, in fact, the pen is what has killed this team during thee Yankees’ recent slide that saw them lose 14 of 19 games.

Afterward, Girardi shrugged off Chapman’s loose inning, making a point of saying he’s still rounding into form since coming off the disabled list.

And, in truth, it’s Betances the Yankees need to get right. Monday night was a step in the right direction, even if it’s too soon to say he’s fixed, as he fell behind every hitter he faced, continuing the problems that have plagued him lately.

In fact, in blowing leads on Tuesday in Chicago and then Saturday in Houston, Betances issued five walks while getting a total of four outs, while blowing leads and seeing his ERA balloon from 1.09 to 3.12.

With another walk last night, he has now given up 13 walks in his last 9 2/3 innings.

And though he has occasionally had similar issues in past years, the numbers are alarming this season: in 27 innings Betances has surrendered 22 walks. By comparison, he walked 28 hitters all of last season, over 73 innings.

It has to make the Yankees a bit nervous because they desperately need him and Chapman to dominate the late innings. That would go a long way toward solving the bullpen problems that are at the root of the recent swoon that has seen them lose their hold on first place in the AL East.

Betances was excellent filling in as the closer when Chapman was out for a month with a shoulder injury, but his absence in the set-up role is what the Yankees missed dearly.

Chapman’s return a couple of weeks ago was supposed to make everything right again in the pen, but now the Yankees need to hope Betances works out his problems quickly.

“I felt a lot better tonight,’’ he said after Monday night’s game. “I was trying to attack the zone early and throw more strikes. I felt like I was getting out of whack with my mechanics, and I’m working on that with Larry (Rothschild).’’

Before the game, Girardi acknowledged that Betances’ size and violent delivery cause imbalance with his mechanics at times. “When he’s off a bit mechanically, his ball is going to scatter,’’ Girardi said. “I think it’s more evident in tall pitchers, so it’s going to be something we’re going to work really hard on to get him back on track.”

In addition to the walks, Betances gave up a monster home run Saturday on a fastball to the Astros’ Evan Gattis, but for the most part his stuff is still plenty dominant. n fact, he has 50 strikeouts in 27 innings, which equates to 16.6 Ks per nine innings _ the highest ratio during his four full seasons in the big leagues.

Complicating matters, however, is the way teams are running on Betances at every opportunity. He has always had a slow delivery to the plate, but it has never been a huge concern for the Yankees because he has been able to get strikeouts practically on demand with runners on base.

That proved to be his formula on Monday night, with a big assist from Sanchez’s arm.

All in all, it wasn’t easy but Betances overmatched hitters when he had to. And you can bet some Yankee people breathed a sigh of relief.

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