Yankees' bullpen authors nine great innings to take series from Royals

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Yankees stayed hot – on this blistering afternoon it wasn’t all that hard – in winning yet another series.

And very much keeping themselves in the bunched up race for an American League playoff spot.

Led by terrific work from their bullpen on a day they used Lucas Luetge as an opener and Tyler Wade continuing his best stretch at the plate of the season, the Yankees beat the Royals, 5-2, Wednesday afternoon in front of 13,748 at Kauffman Stadium which, with the mid-90s temperatures and a heat index that peaked at 106, felt like an outdoor kiln.

The Yankees (63-51), who have won nine of their last 10 completed series, are 22-10 in their last 32 games.

"This is big for us," said Aaron Judge, who went 2-for-5 with an RBI. "This team’s resilient. This team’s always in the fight. Doesn’t matter who goes down, we’ve always got guys are hungry and ready to play."

After Luetge allowed one run and two hits over two innings and Albert Abreu allowed one run over 2 1/3 innings in which he struck out four, Joely Rodriguez, Chad Green, Jonathan Loaisiga and Zack Britton took it home from there.

"Everybody did great," Luetge said. "Everybody was sweating their butts off out there. Everybody did their job and that’s what we needed."

Britton, with a 5.65 ERA this season, hit Ryan O’Hearn to start the ninth but Michael A. Taylor to hit into a fielder’s choice. Emmanuel Rivera then hit what looked to be a certain 4-6-3 double play but Gleyber Torres’ errant throw to second – the Yankees’ third error of the day after committing four the night before – suddenly put the tying run at the plate. Pinch hitter Carlos Santana, however, grounded into a game-ending 5-4-3 double play to earn Britton his first save in three chances.

"I think we kind of embrace it as a bullpen," Green said of days like Sunday. "We have guys that can give you a lot of different looks. We don’t mind doing it."

Wade, whose batting average has hovered in the .250 range – or under it – most of the season, went 2-for-3 with two doubles, a walk and two stolen bases in improving to 12 for his last 38 (.316). Wade is now hitting .262 with a .674 OPS.

"I do the best I can to prepare myself," said Wade, a fourth-round pick of the Yankees in 2013. "Sometimes you hit the ball hard, it goes right at people and you don't see the results. But right now they're finding holes. And we're just going to continue this feeling that I have right now and keep trying to help us win games."

The Yankees, who would amass 10 hits through the first 3 2/3 inning of the game, quickly got on the board against overwhelmed Royals righty Brady Singer, who brought a 3-7 record with a 5.13 ERA into the day.

The Yankees jumped him for three runs in the first, getting a two-run single from Luke Voit and an RBI single from Rougned Odor.

Whit Merrifield, a pain to the Yankees all series, led off the bottom half with a single and, with Nicky Lopez at the plate, stole his 33rd base of the season in as many attempts (that streak would end in the seventh when catcher Rob Brantly threw him out trying to steal second with the tying run at the plate).

The Yankees would build a 5-1 lead and, though there were a couple of nervous moments for them late, the game lacked the bizarreness of the two that preceded it.

"There's a lot of good things that happened today," Boone said, before turning his attention to the Yankees’ sloppiness a second straight game. "But overall, we didn't play very well today. We're fortunate to get out of here with another win. We need to play a little bit better than that."

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

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.