Sabathia gets 1st win of season; Yanks top Royals
YANKEES 6, ROYALS 2
NEW YORK — CC Sabathia played stopper again for the Yankees in earning his first victory of the season and Brett Gardner hit a two-run home run to help New York beat the Kansas City Royals 6-2 on Friday night.
Mike Tauchman also went deep and the Yankees got four solid innings from their bullpen to bounce back from a listless performance against the last-place Royals in the series opener. Held without an extra-base hit Thursday for the first time since Aug. 5, New York quickly rebounded and improved to 4-3 on its nine-game homestand.
Sabathia (1-0) did not allow an earned run over five innings, moving to 15-1 in the regular season following a Yankees loss since 2017. He gave up 3 hits, overcame 4 walks and finished with 5 strikeouts to leave him 6 shy of 3,000 for his career.
The 38-year-old lefty, who has 247 major league victories, was pulled after 86 pitches in his second start of the year following offseason operations on his heart and right knee.
Luis Cessa permitted a run on back-to-back doubles by Hunter Dozier and Alex Gordon to begin the sixth, but pinned a runner at third base with consecutive strikeouts to end the inning. Adam Ottavino, Tommy Kahnle and Zack Britton closed with hitless relief in an intermittent rain.
Gardner gave New York a 2-1 lead in the third with his drive off Jakob Junis (1-2), making his first appearance at Yankee Stadium since July 26, when his fastball broke Aaron Judge’s wrist. The right-hander dropped to 0-3 in the Bronx.
Right fielder Clint Frazier threw
out a runner at the plate to aid Sabathia, and Tauchman launched his second big league home run leading off the fifth.
Judge doubled to start the sixth and scored when center fielder Billy Hamilton made a diving catch of DJ LeMahieu’s bases-loaded sacrifice fly. Luke Voit, who has reached base safely in 30 consecutive games dating to last season, scored on a passed ball.
Kyle Higashioka hit a leadoff double in the seventh and scored when Dozier made a throwing error from third base on Tyler Wade’s bunt single.
Adalberto Mondesi had an RBI single in the third when the Royals took advantage of two Yankees errors — one by Sabathia. He retired Alex Gordon on a tapper in front of home plate with the bases loaded to end the inning.