YANKS Y FLUSH ROYALS AGAIN
overcome cain’s 3 hr as chapman earns 1sT save in pinstripes
A night without Jacoby Ellsbury, Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira available would seem to be an unlikely time for the Yankees to come up with their second biggest outburst of the season.
But not much has gone according to plan in The Bronx this season and the unexpected happened again Tuesday night in a 10-7 win over the Royals.
The sudden turnaround by the offense overshadowed Masahiro Tanaka’s worst outing of the season and Andrew Miller allowing his first run of the year and it gave the Yankees their fourth win in five games after losing seven of eight.
“I think it’s kind of a crazy game,” said Brett Gardner, who delivered the game-winning blow with a one-out double in the eighth off of Kelvin Herrera that scored rookie Ben Gamel from first base.
Gamel, making his first start in the majors, reached on an error by shortstop Alcides Escobar.
And after Gardner’s hit, Starlin Castro was plunked with a pitch and Brian McCann provided some insurance with a double — his third hit of the night — that scored both base runners to give the Yankees a three-run lead.
That was plenty of room for Chapman, who picked up his first save as a Yankee with a scoreless ninth.
“Sometimes, you have what you think is 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.”
That wasn’t the only odd occurrence in The Bronx. The Yankees were also out-homered by Kansas City 4-0, including three from Lorenzo Cain.
The Royals’ center fielder hit a pair off of Tanaka and another against Miller, who faltered in his first appearance as Chapman’s setup man.
Cain’s blast erased a lead that was created by a pair of run-scoring hits from Dustin Ackley and Aaron Hicks, both of whom have had rough starts to 2016.
Tanaka, on the other hand, hadn’t allowed more than two earned runs in any of his first six starts and only surrendered two homers all season before giving up three on Tuesday.
Pitching without his best slider, Tanaka couldn’t figure out the Royals.
But for a second straight night, the Yankees knocked
out a Royals’ starter in the third. On Monday, they belted five homers off Chris Young before Yost pulled the plug on him.
Kris Medlen lasted just two batters into the third. And while the Yankees didn’t take him deep, they pounded him for four runs.
Didi Gregorius pounded on Medlen’s replacement, Brian Flynn, with a basesloaded double that scored three runs.
Tanaka couldn’t keep the lead.
In the fifth, Cain hit his second homer of the night — this one a three-run blast over the visiting bullpen in left-center.
Tanaka ended up retiring the final eight batters he faced and managed to leave the game with the lead after frequently falling victim to a lack of run support this season.
It was just the fourth time in Tanaka’s major league career he gave up three homers in an outing.
But the Yankees kept coming, going 6-for-15 with runners in scoring position.
Afterwards, Joe Girardi couldn’t explain what happened to the offense.
“If I knew, I would have flipped the switch a long time ago,” the manager said. “Maybe it’s the weather heating up. I don’t know. … All of a sudden, I think we’re swinging the bats like we’re capable of.”