GARDY PARTY
Gardy drills game-winner, but Judge gets popped in mouth in celebration
Brett Gardner’s gamewinning home run Thursday night didn’t bring the Yankees all the way back to the top of the AL East, but you can’t get any closer to first place than the Yankees are without being in it.
Gardner, leading off the 11th inning, drove an Andrew Kittredge pitch into the right-field seats to lift the Yankees to a 6-5 win over the Rays, which was witnessed by a Yankee Stadium crowd of 44,033.
It was Gardner’s leadoff triple in the ninth against Rays closer Alex Colome that led to the Yankees tying the score on Gary Sanchez’s two-out ground single to left. Sanchez’s hit got through the infield because shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria and second baseman Tim Beckham, each on the left side of second base in a shift, hesitated to go after the ball.
“We caught a break,’’ manager Joe Girardi said of the botched play.
After Aroldis Chapman (3-1) worked his first twoinning stint of the season and struck out four of the six batters he faced, Gardner smoked a 1-1 pitch for the game-winner.
“I was excited,’’ Gardner said of running the bases after hitting his career-high 18th homer. The Yankees are 15-0 this year when he homers. “I was happy to come through in a big spot.’’
With the Red Sox idle, the Yankees’ sixth win in seven games and fourth straight pulled them within one-half length of their rivals after being 4 ½ games out on July 14.
“We have a good vibe going on,’’ said Todd Frazier, who drove in a run in the second inning, when the Yankees built a 2-0 lead that moved to 3-0 an inning later on Sanchez’s home run. “Everybody comes here and you can feel it.’’
Pinch-hitter Matt Holliday’s force out drove in a run in the eighth, when the Yankees cut the deficit to 5-4. Following a scoreless 10th, in which the Yankees failed to capitalize after Chase Headley drew a leadoff walk, the game ended suddenly in the 11th.
“Brett comes day in and day out and is really, I’ll say it, our captain,’’ Clint Frazier said. “He’s got the most time here with the Yankees, got the clutch gene. You would never guess he is 34 years old. He is like a little kid out there.’’
The only downer of the blast was a helmet colliding with Aaron Judge’s grill and chipping a front tooth during the celebration at home plate.
Working with a 3-0 lead, CC Sabathia blanked the Rays through three innings before giving up a solo homer to personal nemesis Evan Longoria (32-for-76) in the fourth. Four batters into the fifth, Sabathia was replaced by Chad Green, who allowed two inherited runners to score.
“You are always upset when you come out of a game,’’ Sabathia said. “But it worked out for us.’’
Lately, everything is working for a team that went 10-23 from June 13 to July 19 and watched a fourgame division lead turn into a 4 ¹/2-game deficit.
“We show up every night,’’ Sabathia said of a team that takes its cue from Gardner, the undersized catalyst and longesttenured Yankee.
“Gardy’s a fighter and you want fighters on your team,’’ said Girardi, who was ejected by plate umpire Stu Scheurwater in the seventh for arguing balls and strikes during a Judge at-bat. “You see it every day and guys love him.’’
Especially when his home run ends a game the Yankees should have lost, if not for two infielders hesitating on a ground ball.
Brett Gardner soaks it all in after his walk-off homer in the 11th lifted the surging Yankees to a 6-5 win over the Rays and set off a wild celebration that left Aaron Judge (inset) with a chipped tooth. The Bombers tied it in the ninth when two Rays infielders let a two-out grounder go between them.