Adam Warren does well in fourth career start
New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi takes the ball from New York Yankees starting pitcher Adam Warren in the sixth inning in a baseball game at Yankee Stadium on Saturday, April 11, 2015. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
There weren't many bright spots for the Yankees Saturday afternoon at the Stadium, but Adam Warren provided one of them.
The righthander, making his fourth career start and first since Sept. 27, 2013, allowed one earned run and five hits in 51/3 innings. Warren, 27, who won the fifth starter job with an outstanding spring training, threw a career-high 98 pitches.
"Maybe I felt it a little bit in my legs, but going out that last inning, I felt pretty strong," said Warren, who struck out David Ortiz with a man on third to end the fifth. "I felt fresh for the most part."
Warren was hurt by his defense in the second inning, as Alex Rodriguez dropped Didi Gregorius' throw to first and leftfielder Brett Gardner couldn't hold on to Daniel Nava's two-out drive, which was scored an RBI double.
"I felt like I battled out there today," Warren said. "I felt like I was all over the place at times but I made some good pitches, so that's something to build on. But I definitely feel like I could be better out there."
Tough break for Shreve
Chasen Shreve pitched brilliantly in the 19-inning loss that ended early Saturday morning, throwing 31/3 scoreless innings with four strikeouts.
The 24-year-old's reward? A demotion to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. In need of reinforcements, the Yankees called up lefty Matt Tracy, who made his big-league debut and allowed three unearned runs in the eighth.
"It stinks," Joe Girardi said of having to demote Shreve, who has options left. "But it's something that happens in the game. You physically have to make sure that you have enough able bodies every day."
Wake-up call
Winning pitcher Joe Kelly, who allowed one hit in seven innings, woke up not knowing the winner of the game that began Friday night and ended at 2:12 Saturday morning.
"I ended up watching the 15th inning at 1 o'clock and fell asleep," he said. "I knew that we were kind of thin in the bullpen, so I just tried to make quick outs . . . Right when I woke up, the first thing I did was look at my MLB app and pulled it up and saw that we won and it went 19 innings. I said, 'Holy crud.' "
Extra bases
Mark Teixeira turned 35 on Saturday. After playing all 19 innings of the previous game, he had Saturday off . . . Kelly is 3-0 with a 3.43 ERA against the Yankees. According to Elias, he became the first Sox pitcher to win his first three starts against them since Bob Ojeda won his first four from 1981-83.
With Brian Heyman
