Gregorius glorious for Yanks
NEW YORK — While Didi Gregorius was pleased after ending a long power outage with a pair of home runs, Bryce Harper felt relieved to escape serious injury after being hit by two pitches.
CC Sabathia was just surprised, not realizing why the crowd gave him a prolonged ovation in the fourth inning of a superb outing.
Playing a team with a winning record for the first time this month, the New York Yankees beat the Washington Nationals 3-0 on Tuesday for their 10th win in 12 games.
In a matchup of division leaders, Harper gave the Nationals a scare when he fell to the ground in pain after getting hit on the right elbow by a 90-mph pitch from Sabathia in the fifth inning.
The 2015 NL MVP remained in the game but then came out after he was hit on the left foot by Dellin Betances’ 89-mph slider leading off the eighth.
“I feel fine. Elbow feels OK, and the big toe just hurts a little bit,” Harper said. “I already got an X-ray on the toe. I’m fine.” Gregorius has had a
season, bringing to mind the song’s lyrics of “You’re riding high in April, shot down in May.”
The Yankees shortstop hit .327 with 10 homers and
30 RBIs through the season’s first full month, slumped to a .151 average with one homer and five RBIs in May and began the night with no homers and one RBI in June.
“It’s just getting to know myself through that slump,” he said. “I’m still not out of it,” he said.
Gregorious drove a hanging curveball from Tanner Roark (3-7) into the New York bullpen in right-center during a two-run second that also included Austin Romine’s sacrifice fly. It was just the second home run for Gregorius since April 27.
He then led off the sixth by sending a fastball into the right-field second deck for his fourth multi-homer game, and third this season.
Gregorius has hit 11 of his 13 long balls in homer-friendly Yankee Stadium. New York leads the major leagues with 105 round-trippers.
“When Didi’s at his best, he’s into the ground — his feet really drive into the ground,” said Yankees manager Aaron Boone.
A big league-best 43-19, New York was coming off a 7-2 trip.
Sabathia (4-1) allowed four hits over 5.2 innings in his first outing against Washington since 2009 and lowered his ERA to 3.27. He’s 11-0 in 17 regular-season starts following a New York loss since the start of the 2017 season.
Fans applauded at length in the fourth when the video board informed fans the strikeout of Michael Taylor was Sabathia’s 1,500th since joining the Yankees for the 2009 season.
The 37-year-old left-hander’s three strikeouts raised his career total to 2,893.
“I didn’t know what was going on, and Ro told me turn around,” Sabathia said, referring to Romine.
Only then did Sabathia toss the ball to the dugout as a keepsake.
Boone wasn’t surprised by Sabathia’s obliviousness to his own exploits.
“For being a superstar and probably a future Hall of Famer, he’s so not into himself,” Boone said.
Chad Green, Betances and Aroldis Chapman finished up, with Chapman completing the five-hitter for his 18th save in 19 chances.