Pitches into sixth as Yanks zip Sox
VIDAL NUNO finally ran into a lineup he could dominate.
The Red Sox are in a bad way, and Friday night might have been a measure of just how bad it is. They made Nuno, the struggling Yankees lefthander, look like ace Masahiro Tanaka. Nuno shut Boston out over 5.2 innings, and with the help of home runs from Kelly Johnson, Brett Gardner and Brian McCann, the Yankees topped Boston, 6-0, before a sellout crowd of 48,522 at the Stadium.
Boston managed only three hits as it lost for the sixth time in eight games.
Nuno’s win, his first since May 7 and first ever in the Bronx, has to feel like sweet vindication. For the past week, much of the back-chatter has been about whether the Yankees could afford to keep him in the starting rotation and why, given Thursday’s off day, his turn was not skipped. After all, Nuno had allowed 13 home runs at home this season.
“Pretty much it’s a confidence booster tonight, like to show that I can still belong here,” Nuno said. “It’s been a couple of weeks. It’s been a grind. . . . Every day has been tough lately, just knowing that my command wasn’t there.”
Joe Girardi bristled before the game when he was asked one last time why he hadn’t skipped Nuno to go with Ta na ka , who pitches Saturday. His answer — “who should I start?” — wasn’t exactly a show of faith, but Nuno (2-4) rewarded it nonetheless.
He gave up just two hits and two walks and struck out five. He let only one Red Sox reach scoring position — Brock Holt, who doubled in the third inning — and got Dustin Pedroia to fly out and David Ortiz to ground out, ending the threat.
“He fights,” Girardi said of Nuno. “It’s not a guy that throws 95. It’s not a guy with a wipeout slider. It’s just a guy that goes out and competes and finds a way to get it done. He’s beaten a lot of the odds, in a sense, where he’s had to almost start over and come back (from a 2013 groin injury) and worked his way up. He throws strikes.”
But after a two-out walk to Ortiz on his 91st pitch, Nuno was lifted by Girardi and exited to a standing ovation. Dellin Betances finished the sixth and pitched a scoreless seventh. Adam Warren retired the side in order in the eighth. Matt Thornton held a six-run lead in the ninth with a 1-2-3 inning.
The Yankees got on the board in the first with a Derek Jeter single, a Jacoby Ellsbury double and a Mark Teixeira sac fly. The rest of the offense came on home runs as the Bombers got three for the fifth time this season and first time since May 17.
“It seems like we been hitting a few more, so I believe they’re going to come,” Girardi said. “We went through some times when they were up and down, but I really believe that these guys are going to contribute and put up numbers.”
Johnson’s two-run homer was followed immediately by Gardner’s blast, the Yanks’ first back-to-back longballs since May 2 against Ta mpa Bay. McCann hit a two-run shot in the eighth off lefthander Craig Breslow that landed i n the second deck in right, his ninth homer of the season.
“That’s great: when you can put up crooked numbers in multiple innings it’s really important, and you can build your lead,” Girardi said.
“Those two tack-on runs are important there. It’s a big hit for Mac, and that’s what we want to see.”
Still Nuno was the story of the day and might have quieted the groundswell to seek another option — either David Huff or Warren — to fill that spot in the rotation until either CC Sabathia returns from the disabled list or the Bombers make an acquisition. The Yankees have 17 games in 17 days going into the AllStar break and Nuno is likely to make three more starts before he is replaced.