Gleyber Torres comes through in pinch as Yankees sweep Orioles
After Deivi Garcia and Gleyber Torres helped the Yankees snap a five-game losing streak last Wednesday night with a victory over the Blue Jays in Buffalo, Aaron Boone expressed his hope for what the win could mean long-term for his slumping team.
"Hopefully it’s something that guys can exhale a little bit and really start taking off," said Boone, whose team had lost 15 of 20 entering that game. "I really feel like that’s around the corner for us."
Sure seems like it.
With J.A. Happ producing another good outing and Torres delivering a tiebreaking two-out, two-run double as a pinch hitter in the eighth inning, the Yankees earned a 3-1 victory over the Orioles on Sunday at the Stadium, extending their winning streak to five games.
"We understand teams [can] have a bad week," Torres said. "We turned the page."
The win gave the Yankees (26-21) a four-game sweep of the Orioles (20-26) in which they outscored Baltimore 21-3. The Yankees remained a half-game behind the second-place Blue Jays, whom they will play seven times in their last 13 games, including a three-game series that begins Tuesday at the Stadium.
The Yankees have allowed seven runs in their last six games. In the five-game winning streak, their starting pitchers have a 1.21 ERA and a 0.67 WHIP, with 34 strikeouts and two walks allowed in 29 2/3 innings. Since Chad Green and Adam Ottavino allowed 10 runs in the sixth inning last Monday against Toronto, nine Yankees relievers have pitched 16 straight scoreless innings in the last six games.
"Think it was just a matter of time," Clint Frazier said of the club playing better. "We know what we’re capable of . . . It’s a good time to be heating up right now."
Happ allowed one run and five hits in five innings, dropping his ERA to 2.45 in his last five starts, and escaped a first-and-third, none-out jam in the fifth. Cedric Mullins grounded to third, setting up a rundown that erased Pat Valaika between third and home, and Hanser Alberto struck out on a 3-and-2 pitch, with Kyle Higashioka easily cutting down Rio Ruiz attempting to steal third on the play.
"Hopefully we’re settling in a little bit," Happ said of the rotation. "I feel I’m throwing the ball the way I’m capable for sure."
Ottavino, Jonathan Holder, Green and Zack Britton kept the score 1-1 until the bottom of the eighth.
With two outs, Aaron Hicks singled off Dillon Tate and Frazier was credited with an infield single when first baseman Renato Nunez booted his sharp grounder and Tate missed the bag after taking Nunez’s flip.
Torres, again wearing what amounts to a pair of good-luck glasses that have quickly become a popular topic in the dugout, pinch hit for Brett Gardner against lefthander Tanner Scott. He slammed a 97-mph fastball into the gap in right-center that one-hopped the auxiliary scoreboard for a two-run double and a 3-1 lead.
Frazier scored all the way from first, following the instructions of Hicks and making a nifty fadeaway slide toward the third-base dugout to beat Pedro Severino’s tag.
"Told him before there may be a big spot late, so be ready," Boone said of his pregame talk with Torres. "He was waiting over there. [He was] ready to go."
Aroldis Chapman pitched a scoreless ninth for his second save in four chances.
Before that, Nunez homered in the second and Tyler Wade, facing lefthander John Means, hit a line drive off the top of the rightfield wall and into the seats for a tying home run in the third. Wade came in hitting .152 with a .250 on-base percentage.
"This was a big win for us to finish off a really good series," Boone said. "The pitching continues to kind of carry us through this stretch. Hopefully we can continue to play well."
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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