ROOKIE’S HIT SAVES BOMBERS
YANKS SURVIVE AFTER BLOWING LEAD
Miguel Andujar was called up to the Yankees on April 1.
Gleyber Torres followed from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre three weeks later.
After Friday’s 7-6 win over the Indians, when Torres hit his first major league home run and Andujar delivered the game-winning hit with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, it’s hard to envision a Yankees future without the two rookies around.
Torres’ blast put the Yankees up 3-0 in the fourth, but Andujar played the hero, after the bullpen had blown a pair of leads, by serving a 1-2 curveball from Cleveland closer Cody Allen into shallow right to score Giancarlo Stanton from third.
“No moment is too big for them,’’ Aaron Judge said of the rookie infielders after the Yankees improved to 13-1 in their past 14 games. “It’s always business as usual.”
Stanton started the game-winning rally with a double to right-center to open the bottom of the ninth off Alexi Ogando.
Allen came on to face Gary Sanchez, who flied to right. Stanton moved to third on Aaron Hicks’ grounder to first and Neil Walker came back from an 0-2 count to draw a walk, setting up Andujar.
“We thought so highly of them going into this year and figured they would play a role in some way,’’ manager Aaron Boone said of Andujar and Torres. “But to be the impact players they are for our club right now these last couple weeks, I guess I should say I’m not shocked by it [because] I know how talented these guys are. [But] to have it happen this quickly … on a nightly basis is pretty special.”
And it helped prevent what could have been an ugly loss, as the bullpen seemed determined to give this one away.
CC Sabathia was coming off two stellar outings — both wins — in which he gave up just one earned run over 13 innings against the Twins and Angels.
He was just as effective against Cleveland, giving up just three hits — and no walks — in six scoreless innings to lower his ERA to 1.39.
Sabathia retired 10 of the first 11 batters he faced before Ramirez laced a one-out double to left in the fourth.
Boone opted to take Sabathia out after 92 pitches. He had thrown a season-high 97 in his previous start against the Angels.
After a shutout inning from Dellin Betances, Chasen Shreve came on with a five-run lead and didn’t retire a batter. The lefty allowed a walk and a single before Bradley Zimmer hit one out to center to cut the Yankees’ advantage to 5-3.
Following a Francisco Lindor single, David Robertson entered and quickly surrendered a game-tying two-run homer by Jose Ramirez.
The Yankees went ahead again in the bottom of the eighth, after Judge’s walk with the bases loaded and two out gave them a one-run lead. Judge also went deep for the eighth time this season in the fourth inning and Sanchez hit a 461-foot homer an inning later.
Nothing for the Yankees was easy on Friday, though, as Aroldis Chapman allowed the tying run to score in the top of the ninth when he uncorked a wild pitch with two outs and Yan Gomes on third.
Chapman eventually struck out the side, but by then he had allowed a leadoff single to Gomes and hit Zimmer — and had thrown two wild pitches, the first of which put Gomes on third base.
Andujar made those problems vanish with his first walkoff hit in the majors — after Sanchez ended the Yankees’ previous homestand with a game-winning homer in the ninth against the Twins.
“It’s not exactly how we drew it up, obviously,” Boone said of the win. “Especially in the box, I know guys really take a lot of pride in not giving away at-bats.”