BASH MASTERS
Yanks pound Royals, MLB’s ERA leader
YANKEES 11 ROYALS 7
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Long before Dellin Betances was summoned to squash a ninth-inning uprising, the Yankees were basking in the glow of assaulting a second straight Royals starter.
That Betances, who recorded the final out of an 11-7 Yankees victory Wednesday night and posted a one-out save in front of 22,899 at Kauffman Stadium, was needed was a minor bruise because the lineup torched Kansas City’s Jason Vargas one night after punishing Jason Hammel.
“We came to the game with a really good plan,’’ Starlin Castro said of facing the left-handed Vargas, who opened the game with a 5-1 ledger and an MLB-best 1.01 ERA. “Not chase pitches and make him throw the ball over the plate. We didn’t chase pitches.’’
By the time Vargas departed he had given up six runs and seven hits in four innings.
Castro went 3-for-4 and raised his average to .351.
“I feel good, the whole team feels good,’’ said Castro, who doubled in a run in the first and doubled and scored in the five-run fourth that was highlighted by Aaron Hicks tucking a three-run homer inside the left-field fold pole.
Those who swing the bat should feel good, because right now the 24-13 Yankees are being carried by the sticks. In the past four games the Yankees have scored 36 runs.
“One through nine we are getting the job done,’’ Betances said. “The lineup is deep and a lot of fun to watch.’’
Michael Pineda (4-2) provided six-plus innings in which he gave up four runs (three earned) and six hits (two homers). He has won four of his last five decisions.
“When we have a lot of scoring like that it is pretty comfortable,’’ said Pineda, who had a 6-0 lead when he took the mound for the fourth.
The Royals scored a pair on Salvador Perez’s homer, but the Yankees responded with four in the fifth to put the game away until Giovanny Gallegos became unhinged in the ninth to give the hosts a flash flood of a chance.
Gallegos gave up three runs that cut the Yankees’ lead to 11-7 and left Betances two runners on in his initial save situation since Aroldis Chapman went on the disabled list, where he is expected to stay for at least four weeks.
“It felt good to be out there. For the last two weeks I haven’t pitched much,’’ said Betances, who fielded Eric Hosmer’s grounder to him and fired to first to end the Yankees’ second straight win.
The victory, coupled with the second-place Orioles’ loss to the Tigers, hiked the Yankees’ AL East lead to a season-high 1½ lengths.
Castro is never going to be considered a patient hitter, but listening to hitting coaches Alan Cockrell and Marcus Thames preach about not giving at-bats away and
staying away from chasing pitches has helped the second baseman.
Hicks has benefitted from more playing time and has forced manager Joe Girardi to put him in the lineup. Wednesday night he batted eighth and was looking for a changeup.
“Make him get a changeup up in the zone and put a good swing on it,’’ Hicks said of his plan against Vargas, who threw him an 80-mph change that landed in the seats and followed Didi Gregorius’ RBI single.
Girardi said due to lack of work lately it wasn’t the worst thing that Betances had to hurl in a game that was seemingly over until it wasn’t. One batter and one save isn’t much of a workload.
Still, with the way the Yankees are hitting, it never should have come to using Betances for a save.