Headley rallies Yanks over Astros 11-6 before Jeter ceremony

By Ronald Blum NEW YORK >> The Yankees started celebrating even before ceremonies to retire Derek Jeter’s No. 2.

Chase Headley stopped a 1-for-24 slide with a tiebreaking, bases-loaded triple off Chris Devenski in a six-run seventh inning, and New York rallied to beat the Houston Astros 11-6 Sunday in a doubleheader opener.

Looking pretty in pink in special Mother’s Day uniforms, the AL East leaders stopped their first threegame losing streak since the season’s opening week.

“It was pretty important, not only for myself but, obviously, for the team,” said Headley, whose batting average had dropped from .304 on May 5 to .256.

Houston, a big leaguebest 25-12, had been trying to move 15 games over .500 for the first time since the Astros went 89-73 in 2005 and won their only NL pennant.

New York trailed 3-1 before Starlin Castro’s tying, two-run homer off Mike Fiers in the fourth. Aaron Judge followed with his major league-leading 14th homer, a 441-foot drive off the padding above the center-field restaurant behind Monument Park, where a plaque honoring Jeter was to be unveiled during the ceremony before the night game.

The Yankees announced before the opener that closer Aroldis Chapman will be out at least a month because of a sore shoulder, forcing them to reshuffle their bullpen, and Houston took a 6-4 lead in the seventh against Adam Warren (1-0).

New York came right back in the bottom half when Matt Holliday hit a run-scoring infield single against Will Harris (1-1) and Castro tied the score with an opposite-field double to right off Devenski. Judge was intentionally walked, Didi Gregorius struck out on three pitches and Headley sent a hanging changeup rolling to the right-center.

“You just tell yourself to relax and try to take a deep breath and keep everything in perspective,” Headley said. “When you haven’t gotten a hit in a while, it feels like it’s been five years since you’ve gotten a hit.”

Chris Carter followed with an RBI double for a 10-6 lead. Brett Gardner added an eighth-inning homer off Tony Sipp.

Devenski leads big league relievers with 43 strikeouts. He had stranded all seven of his inherited runners this year and only three of 37 had scored in his big league career.

“Those definitely weren’t my best changeups,” Devenski said. “I didn’t really execute well on that fastball to Castro.”

Masahiro Tanaka (51) was to start the second game for the Yankees and Charlie Morton (4-2) for the Astros.

Only a few thousand fans were at Yankee Stadium for the start of an afternoon makeup of Saturday’s rainout, and more rain fell during the Yankees’ two rallies.

The Bleacher Creatures’ first-inning Roll Call of Yankees starters included Jeter, who led New York to five World Series titles during a big league career that spanned 1995-2014, and fans chanted Jeter’s name in the late innings.

Pitching on six days’ rest, Yankees starter Luis Severino got just three outs with his first 44 pitches and was chased after 77 pitches and 2 1/3 innings. He gave up three runs, six hits and a season-high three walks.

“He just had to work really hard the first two innings, and it cost him,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said.

Chad Green got Alex Bregman to ground into his second double play of the game and threw 3 2/3 innings of one-hit relief.

Fiers, who has allowed a big league-high 16 homers, gave up four runs and four hits in 5 2/3 innings.