NO GRAY AREA FOR YANKEES

Sonny shows pitching to Austin is bright idea

The Yankees’ middling record stood at 9-9 after Sonny Gray was shelled again on April 20, when they already trailed the rival Red Sox by 7.5 games three weeks into the new season. Ever since, they have been winning practically every day, in every way imaginable, whether they’ve needed to pull out a slugfest or a pitchers’ duel, whether they score runs early and don’t look back or pull out thrillers in their final turn at the plate.

They even won Saturday in a game started by Gray, as the former Oakland All-Star was rewarded for his second straight highquality outing following a disastrous first few starts, with a 5-2 win over Cleveland to keep the train steaming down the elevated tracks in the Bronx.

“He was good last time, and I thought even better this time. Another really good step for him,” manager Aaron Boone said after the Yanks improved to 14-1 over their past 15 games — the first time they’ve done that in 20 years. “He had that look in his eye, and even after the game talking to him, Sonny felt really good about it, knowing that he feels like he’s almost to where he’s back. It was really encouraging, I was really proud of him.”

Boone thought Gray’s performance represented “a giant leap” and was far more reminiscent of the confident pitcher the Yanks thought they were acquiring at last summer’s trade deadline, one who relied mostly on his sinking fastball and his fourseamer before departing after six innings with a 4-2 cushion.

Still, Boone also deserves some credit here for going back on his insistence throughout spring training and early in his managerial debut season that he’d stay away from employing a personal catcher for any member of the starting staff, instead aligning Gray for a third straight start with his clear preference, backup catcher Austin Romine, ahead of All-Star backstop Gary Sanchez.

Such arrangements have been a timetested phenomenon of baseball for decades, including when Boone’s father, Bob, was an All-Star catcher with Philadelphia in the 1970s and ceded games started by Hall of Famer Steve Carlton to backup Tim McCarver. “He couldn’t hit like Gary, though,” Boone joked about his dad before the game, before acknowledging plans to continue with the GrayRomine setup for the time being.

“I don’t necessarily like the word permanent, but it’s something that certainly for the foreseeable future we’ll try and probably match up,” Boone added. “As we continue to plan out where it makes sense, we’ll do it. Hopefully, we’ll get to a point where it doesn’t matter, where Sonny’s in a great place… But in the short-term, we’ll try to match up as best as we can.”

Gray clearly was grasping for answers with an 8.27 ERA on April 20 — the game before the team’s white-hot roll began. Romine appears to be one of the answers he was seeking, and Boone made the right call in altering his previous plan, especially if this is the result.

“I trust that guy completely and knowing whatever (sign) he puts down, you shake your head yes and throw it with conviction. That’s what I’ve done the last couple of games, for sure,” Gray said of Romine. “I have a lot of confidence in myself and I know I’m a better pitcher than the first four or five starts.

“It maybe took a little time to get there, but I trust my stuff and how good I am. I knew it wasn’t going to be like that forever.”

Asked later about possibly returning to working with Sanchez, Gray added: “If and when that situation arises, it will be just fine.”

But Romine admitted he considers Gray’s vote of confidence a “huge” compliment.

“It’s his career, he’s throwing the pitches, it’s his ERA and stuff like that, but that’s the one thing you’re striving for is when a pitcher likes to throw to you and trusts you,” said Romine, who also contributed a bases-loaded walk for the Yanks’ first run and doubled and scored for their final one. “But you have to earn that trust.”

Gray and Romine were among the keys to the Yanks earning their 14th win over a 15-game stretch for the first time since 1998, a record-breaking year in which the Bombers finished with 125 victories overall by the time they celebrated the World Series championship that October in San Diego.

These Yanks have so far to go to even come close to such lofty accomplishments, but an 8-1 mark against the Angels, Astros and Indians — three teams currently in playoff positions in the American League, with the Red Sox due in town on Tuesday — represents an eye-opening start.

“We knew going into this kind of gauntlet, there weren’t or haven’t been a lot of easy ones in there,” Boone said. “For us to be playing the way we are, winning in all different kinds of ways… I think that’s hopefully the sign of a good team.”

Gray’s reemergence, regardless of his catching partner, only would make them that much better.