Yanks’ bullpen stymies O’s after Green exits early

The Yankees are so hot, they don’t even need length out of their starting pitcher these days.

Chad Green, starting in place of struggling ace Masahiro Tanaka, only made it two batters into the third inning because of a high pitch count. The Yankees still cruised to their fifth straight victory, a 14-3 shellacking of the Orioles at the Stadium to finish a dominant sweep. They didn’t have to use their two best relievers, Dellin Betances and Tyler Clippard, either, adding to the good vibes.

That was a credit to the yeoman’s work out of the bullpen from four relievers: Chasen Shreve, Jonathan Holder, Adam Warren and rookie Domingo German. The foursome allowed seven hits and just one run over seven innings of work, struck out four and walked only two.

“Guys got big outs for us,” manager Joe Girardi said. “One inning [the Orioles] had four straight doubles, but guys settled in.”

Shreve was arguably the most important. After Green allowed doubles to J.J. Hardy and Ruben Tejada, the southpaw came on and gave up back-to-back doubles to the first two hitters he faced, as the Orioles crept to 5-3 in the third. Shreve then retired the next three hitters, getting the heart of the Baltimore order.

The lead was never in jeopardy again, as the Yankees offense exploded for seven runs combined in the sixth and seventh innings, and the bullpen held down the explosive Orioles.

“[We] definitely [take] some pride in it,” said Warren, who allowed just one hit in 1 2/3 scoreless innings and struck out one. “We have a lot of confidence in our guys and to be able to use a lot of the guys like that and all of them to pitch well was neat. It was nice because the starters have been going so deep that we haven’t been able to get a lot of work.”