Yanks stop 5-game skid, beat Braves

NEW YORK: The Yankees ended their skid not with an offensive breakout but with key runs that involved no contact.

Atlanta Braves reliever Nate Jones threw a tiebreaking wild pitch with slumping Clint Frazier at the plate in the eighth inning and forced in a run with a four-pitch walk to Mike Ford, giving the Yankees an unusual 3-1 victory on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila) that stopped a fivegame losing streak.

“We got kicked in the mouth a little bit last week. I think it was kind of an eye-opener for us,” said left-hander Justin Wilson, who stranded the bases loaded in the seventh by getting NL MVP Freddie Freeman to ground into an inning-ending force-out. “But we’ve got a bunch of grinders. We’ve got guys that want to win like I’ve never been on a team that wants to win so bad.”

Gio Urshela hit a tying home run in the fifth inning off Charlie Morton and the Yankees won with five hits, which left their four-game total at 16. New York went 2 for 8 with runners in scoring position but the last-place Yankees improved to 6-10 and avoided what would have been their worst start since 1972. AP