RALLY BIG WIN FOR YANKS
TORRES, SANCHEZ BLASTS CAP COMEBACK VS. O’S
BALTIMORE — If luck is really the residue of design, the Yankees qualified for architectural awards Monday night at Camden Yards. Starting pitcher J.A. Happ was shelled and didn’t get out of the fourth inning. After four frames the Yankees trailed by five runs to the Orioles, who are the worst team in the American League for a simple reason: they stink. And then the Yankees ran into a sliver of real luck when Orioles catcher Pedro Severino whiffed on Luke Voit’s two-out foul pop in the ninth that seemingly stayed in the air forever behind the plate that should have been caught and should have sent the game to the bottom of the ninth with the score tied. But these are the Orioles and Gary Sanchez followed by crushing a three-run homer off Mychal Givens into the left-field seats that carried the Yankees to a come-from-behind and very ugly 10-7 win witnessed by an announced crowd of 16,457.
“We won in spite of me tonight,’’ said Happ, who gave up six runs and nine hits [two homers] in 3 2/3 innings in his shortest outing of the season. “Gary got a huge hit and [Aroldis Chapman] Chappy closed it.’’ Perhaps on another night against a better team the Yankees might not have felt as confident as they did against the Orioles. Yet, when Aaron Boone went to the mound to remove Happ, according to Voit he told the infielders, “Put your hitting shoes on.’’ When Happ got to the dugout his teammates told him, “We got a lot of game left.’’
The victory enabled the 29-17 Yankees to go one game up on the secondplace and idle Rays in the AL East. It was the Yankees’ 11th win in 14 games
and they have won 21 of their past 28 games.
There was more than just Severino not coming close to catching Voit’s pop behind the plate that may have gotten above the lights, which is death for a catcher.
Orioles left fielder Dwight Smith Jr. unleased a terrible throw that was supposed to be in the direction of home plate but wasn’t close. That allowed Cameron Maybin, who had tagged on Aaron Hicks’ fly ball but hadn’t broken for home, to score and pull the Yankees to within a run.
Gleyber Torres’ second homer of the game and 10th of the season off Givens with two outs and the bases empty in the eighth pulled the Yankees to within a run.
“Just try to do my job every game,’’ said Torres, when asked to explain how eight of those 10 homers have been hit against the O’s.
Givens gave up back-toback singles to Brett Gardner and Maybin to start the ninth that put runners on second and third because of another poor throw when O’s right fielder Joey Rickard should have thrown to second but tried to get Gardner at third instead. After DJ LeMahieu grounded out, Hicks lofted a fly ball to Smith that plated Gardner and tied the score, 7-7. After Voit’s walk, made possible by that muffed pop-up behind the plate, Sanchez’ 13th homer was seeking all the empty seats in left field.
“He missed it by 10 feet, I skied it, I will take it,’’ said Voit, who made a costly error in the sixth by dropping a routine foul pop that allowed the Orioles to score a run.
Sanchez started the game hitting .160 (4-for-25) with runners in scoring position and popped out with Voit on second in the fourth. His single in the sixth scored LeMahieu from third and the homer gave him a 2-for-3 night with runners in scoring position.
“Looking for something in the zone I could drive,’’ Sanchez said of the blast. “[Givens] throws hard.’’ george.king@nypost.com