One day after throwing 40 pitches, Yankees closer Dellin Betances realized the obvious: There was no way he could pitch Wednesday.
Manager Joe Girardi, who also was without Adam Warren (44 pitches Tuesday) for the series finale against Toronto, a 2-0 Yankees win, concurred and admitted Betances might even need two days to recuperate.
“I can’t pitch [Wednesday],” Betances said. “Obviously I threw a lot of pitches. I caused that myself.
“The more efficient you can be the better you’ll be and the better you’ll feel. So take today off see how I feel tomorrow and see what happens. I can’t really say I got to see how I wake up. I just know I can’t go today.”
Betances, who nearly blew a three-run ninth inning lead in the Yankees’ 7-6 win Tuesday, was told he had hit 40 pitches once before: “two years ago but it was multiple innings. I only got one out yesterday so it was a lot more stress.”
Starlin Castro reached the 20-homer plateau for the first time in his career. And he’s the fourth Yankee second baseman to hit 20 (Robinson Cano, Joe Gordon, Alfonso Soriano).
“If I do it this year I could do it more,” Castro said.
Especially if he stays put — 14 of his homers have been at home.
“It’s a really good place to hit and there’s nothing better than home,” Castro said.
The Yankees completed a sweep for the first time in eight tries since sweeping the Angels in June.
Tyler Clippard became the eighth different Yankee to record a save this season.
Even young guys get worn down. So Girardi withheld Gary Sanchez and Aaron Judge from the starting lineup.
“Gary we just felt needed a day. I can’t remember the last day he’s had off. We’ve played him every day and I just think he’s getting run down,” Girardi said. “Just giving Judge a day off, too. The plan is they will both be back in there [Thursday].”
Girardi said there were pitches Sanchez just “missed where he didn’t miss any for that two- or three-week period” and stressed a day off can clear the head for a guy like Judge. But Judge proved prophetic. He was inserted for defense, made a catch at the wall in right and flew out to left.
“You never know I might get in there … to pinch hit or someone might get hurt,” said Judge. “So it’s never really an off day.”
While Sanchez and Judge sat, Tyler Austin remained in the lineup giving the Yankees a rookie presence. Austin started in right and went 1-for-3.
“The last two years I’ve done nothing really but play right field,” said Austin, who cracked a big homer Tuesday, his 25th birthday. “This year I haven’t played there that much. It’s been the majority at first base but I feel comfortable out there.”
Austin singled and struck out twice.
The lineup had Didi Gregorius hitting cleanup, something Girardi indicated might be seen more down the stretch.
“It’s possible,” Girardi said. “I don’t know that I’d do it against lefties, even though he’s hit lefties.”
Asked what he would have said if told in April Gregorius would hit fourth during a playoff chase, Girardi said, “I probably wouldn’t agree with you.”
Gregorius went 1-for-3 with a double and a walk on Wednesday night.
The awful start by Chase Headley was well-documented — he hit .150 in April, did not get an extra-base hit until May 12. He has rebounded, hitting .259 overall and has reached base safely in 22 of 23 games. He went 1-for-4 on Wednesday night
“He got off to a terrible, terrible start and he didn’t panic. He just kept working at it. We kept running him out there and he figured it out,” Girardi said.
Headley said it was tough. He admitted “from the left side there were a couple things mechanically that weren’t where I wanted them to be” but “right-handed I actually felt okay, thought I swung the bat okay just didn’t get the results I wanted.” But he kept working, watching film.
“It wasn’t like I could just look at video and say ‘Wow, that’s obviously wrong.’ It was really subtle, a couple things that weren’t overly obvious,” Headley said.