BRONX BASH
Yanks move into first with another power party
Those who smirked at the Yankees’ solid play in the middle of April pointed to the final week of the first month as a more accurate way to judge manager Joe Girardi’s club.
A three-game series in Boston with the preseason AL East favorite Red Sox was followed by three against the Orioles, who took two of three from the Yankees in Baltimore in the first week and led the division when they arrived in The Bronx.
Well, one game in Boston was washed out and the Yankees won the other two. And after the 12-4 pummeling of the Orioles on Saturday in front of 37,303 at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees go for a three-game sweep of the Birds on Sunday.
“You think where we were a year ago in April and we were really struggling. And you think about the first five games [this year] we really struggled,’’ said Girardi, whose 2016 team went 8-14 in April and dropped four of the initial five this year. “It’s good to see we are playing a lot better and we need to continue to do it. These are important games.’’
One day after erasing a 9-1 lead and winning, 14-11, in 10 innings and hitting five homers, the Yankees smothered the Orioles with four homers and a solid outing from Michael Pineda to stretch the win streak to four games, move a game ahead of the O’s into first place and up their record to 15-7.
Brett Gardner, who didn’t have a homer or an RBI entering Saturday’s action and was hitting .188, hit one in the first inning and another in the second. Austin Romine, who finished with five RBIs, hit a two-run homer in the sixth. Aaron Judge finished the shower of power with a two-run blast in the seventh.
“We got guys hitting for power, we got guys getting on base a lot and speed guys,’’ Judge said of a lineup that has torched the O’s pitching for 26 runs in two games.
Nobody has more power than Judge, the 6-foot-7, 282pounder. His 10th homer put him in the AL lead.
“I am not sure you expect 10 home runs [in a month] from anybody,’’ Girardi said of Judge, who had two walks, a single, scored four runs and stole a base to go with the homer. “That would be 60 a year.’’
Asked about the possibility of averaging 10 homers a month across the six-month season, Judge paused.
“Anything is possible but if we keep winning I will take it,’’ who is hitting .301 with 20 RBIs.
Michael Pineda worked 5 ¹/3 innings in which he gave up two unearned runs, five hits, walked one and fanned eight. He has won three straight since the Rays punished him for four runs and eight hits on April 5 at Tampa Bay. Pineda is 3-1 overall with a tidy 3.14 ERA.
Adam Warren contributed to the victory with 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief.
Seven of Pineda’s strikeouts came on sliders, which shouldn’t be a surprise as it is one of the best in baseball when right.
“All the time that is my strikeout pitch,’’ Pineda said. “With the slider there are a lot of swing and misses.’’
Monday brings May, and the Yankees are guaranteed to be no worse than 15-8, could be 16-7 and riding a three-game sweep of the Orioles.
One month doesn’t define a season, but the Yankees proved in Boston they can win close, well-pitched games, and Friday and Saturday they showed they can go chest-to-chest when it’s called for.
And that isn’t a bad daily double in any month.