Austin doing it at plate, too

Austin Romine doesn’t belt mammoth home runs like Gary Sanchez does, but the Yankees’ backup catcher is contributing at the plate, too. Romine caught starter Sonny Gray for the third consecutive rotation turn, and he also walked with the bases loaded and ripped a key double in the Yanks’ 5-2 win Saturday over Cleveland.

“I feel pretty good at the plate. I feel like I’m doing my job,” Romine said. “I take catching first; that’s my priority as a backup catcher. It’s what’s got to be first and foremost, but being able to put both together and do my job at the plate, that’s what I’m striving for every day.”

Romine is hitting .286 overall this season, but .455 (5-for-11) with three walks and seven RBI with runners in scoring position.

“It’s what we’ve seen all year from him,” Aaron Boone said. “We challenged Ro at the start of spring, because we feel like he does impact the game back there behind the plate and we feel like there’s more in there offensively.

“We really challenged him to do that. Because we want to get him in more games. It allows us to rest Gary that way, whether it’s a day off or a Gary-DH day. When Ro’s playing the way he’s playing and having quality at-bats on top of it, obviously it’s great for us and it’s also great for Gary because it allows us to preserve him and not run him into the ground behind the plate.”

The rookie will make his first major-league start on Sunday, opposing Cleveland righty Mike Clevinger in Sunday’s series finale. “We’ll kind of see how it evolves,” Boone said before the game. “I feel very good about giving him the ball in that situation, and I would expect it to go on for at least a couple of turns.”

German, 25, has posted a 3.45 ERA in 12 relief appearances for the Yanks over the past two seasons. He said he’s gleaned pointers in recent days from Yanks ace Luis Severino about the Cleveland lineup.

“I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. Its’ going to be a dream come true for me,” German said through a translator. “I’m very thankful to the manager for giving me this opportunity. The way I look at it is just focus on doing my job. I want to go out there and do a good job so I can create a bigger opportunity for myself and hopefully stay in the rotation.”