BULL' ON PARADE
Yankees showcase pen strength with Boone's call to arms leading way to win
WASHINGTON — The reason most teams are envious about the Yankees’ bullpen was on display Sunday when the Yankees ran into their first save situation of a very short season without All-Star closer Aroldis Chapman.
The hard-throwing lefty is on the COVID-19 injured list. In other locales that would throw a big roadblock up on the road to reaching the post- season.
With the Yankees, they simply dug into a very deep bullpen that was the main reason they were able to eke out a 3-2 win over the Nationals at Nationals Park.
Gleyber Torres and Luke Voit homered in the seventh and Torres delivered the eventual game-winning single off Sean Doolittle in the eighth, but it was the parade of relievers Aaron Boone successfully marched to the mound that sent the Yankees to Philadelphia with a 2-1 ledger.
Across six innings, a ninth-inning save chance looked remote. Lefty Patrick Corbin retired the first 11 Yankees and hardly
broke a sweat in the 93-degree heat. Torres stopped the mini no-hitter with a two-out single in the fourth and Corbin got the next seven hitters to protect a 2-0 lead.
But when Corbin’s 75th pitch resulted in a Torres homer in the seventh, Nationals manager Dave Martinez lifted him for righty Will Harris, who fanned Giancarlo Stanton but gave up a homer to Voit that tied the score, 2-2. An inning later Torres’ single off Doolittle put the Yankees ahead.
While it got dicey in the eighth and ninth, Tommy Kahnle and Zack Britton didn’t waste the work turned in by Adam Ottavino and Chad Green, who combined for three scoreless innings.
Kahnle had to pitch around Torres’ throwing error with one out in the eighth, which was followed by Adam Eaton’s opposite-field double to left. With the infield in, Kahnle struck out Starlin Castro, intentionally walked the right-handed hitting Howie Kendrick to get to the lefty swinging Eric Thames and left the bases loaded by striking him out with a changeup.
“I knew I had to get it,’’ Kahnle said of the final whiff. “I knew going in that my changeup was working well. Me and Gary [Sanchez] stayed on the same page and we stuck with it and got a big out.”
More drama arrived in the ninth, which is Britton’s domain until Chapman returns. Torres lost his footing fielding Asdrubal Cabrera’s leadoff ground ball and Cabrera reached. Pinch-runner Emilio Bonifacio moved to second when Sanchez was charged with a passed ball. On a 3-2 pitch to Victor Robles, Bonifacio was caught attempting to steal third, thanks to his oversliding the bag and a strong throw by Sanchez.
Britton walked Robles, but the Nationals had a runner on first with one out instead of two runners on and no outs. In his first appearance of the season, Britton closed out the win by getting Yan Gomes on a routine fly to center and Michael A. Taylor on a grounder to Torres.
“In my head out there, I haven’t had a save opportunity in a long time, one-run game and my first outing, a little bit of everything,’’ said Britton, who went 47for-47 in saves with the Orioles in 2016 and has 145 in the majors. “That was a huge comeback by our guys.
Gary came up huge for us, throwing that guy out.’’
It was only the third game of a 60-game schedule and played in front of empty seats.
But to Voit, the game felt different than the two played under the lights — Friday when they won a rain-shortened game and got battered Saturday night.
“Today, a close game all the guys in the dugout are hooting and hollering balls and strikes and big hits. It had more of a September-August-game feel,’’ Voit said.
When Chapman returns, he will nudge Britton into the eighth-inning role, a move that will only make Boone’s bullpen deeper than it was Sunday.