Bats stay hot to bail out arms
YANKEES 10 ROYALS 7
The Bombers’ bats erupted Tuesday night when they needed it most. Despite their pitchers surrendering seven runs on four homers, the Yankees pulled out a 10-7 win over the Royals at the Stadium, posting their first double-digit run total since the second game of the season on April 6.
Masahiro Tanaka endured his worst outing this year, allowing six earned runs over seven innings. And Andrew Miller surrendered his first run of the season in the eighth inning on a homer from Lorenzo Cain, who hit three dingers in the contest. But each time a Yankee pitcher floundered, the offense, coming off a five-homer game the previous night, was there to pick up the slack — something this group has done little of in a poor start to 2016.
The Yankees (13-18) took the lead for good in the eighth, breaking a 7-7 tie with three runs. Brett Gardner drove in the go-ahead run with a double to left-center after rookie Ben Gamel — making his first-career start — reached on an error by Kansas City shortstop Alcides Escobar.
Brian McCann added the final two runs on a booming double to deep center field, and flamethrower Aroldis Chapman closed the door in the top of the ninth to secure a series victory over the Royals (15-17). “If I knew, I would have flipped the switch a long time ago,” manager Joe Girardi said of his offense, which entered Tuesday night with the fourth-fewest runs scored in the AL. “All of a sudden, I think we’re swinging the bats like we’re capable of, and you’re getting contributions up and down the lineup.”
Without Jacoby Ellsbury (hip), Alex Rodriguez (hamstring) and Mark Teixeira (neck spasms) — once the team’s 1-3-4 hitters — the Yankees offense put on one of its best performances of the season.
Six different players drove in runs, including Chase Headley and Dustin Ackley, who entered the game with a combined three RBI. “Sometimes you have what you think’s your best lineup and you struggle to score runs for a week straight,” Gardner said. “And then you’re missing three of your best players, and you score a bunch of runs. Baseball’s got a funny way of working out like that.”
The Yankees opened the scoring in the first inning. Three straight singles from Starlin Castro, McCann and Carlos Beltran loaded the bases before Ackley — starting in place of Teixeira at first base — drove in a run on a sacrifice fly to center.
The Royals took the lead in the top of the second on Cheslor Cuthbert’s first homer of the season, a two-run shot to left. But the Yankees responded in the bottom half when Headley drove in Didi Gregorius with a single to right.
Cain’s first home run the game, a solo shot to the short porch in right, put Kansas City back ahead in the top of the third. But again, the Yankees picked up Tanaka, this time scoring three runs in the bottom half on a bases-clearing double from Gregorius. “When you get those guys going too, that’s what happens,” Girardi said of the bottom of his order. “You have big outputs.”
The back-and-forth affair continued in the fifth when Cain crushed his second home run of the night over the 399 sign in left-center. The three-run shot put the Royals ahead 6-5.
Tanaka got through two scoreless innings in the sixth and seventh before the Yankees took the lead again in the bottom of the seventh. McCann reached on a blooper down the left-field line and took second on a balk. Then Ackley singled him home with a broken-bat-line drive through the left side, advancing to second on a wild throw from Royals left fielder Alex Gordon.
Hicks drove in the go-ahead run with a double to left-center. But Cain’s third home run in the top of the eighth off Miller tied the game again. Then the once-putrid Yankees offense put the game away.
“There’s a lot of track records in here. We just got off to a slow start,” McCann said. “We need to keep building and building and building.”