After watching his hitters flail against the Orioles’ dull pitching staff for seven innings Aaron Boone got the matchup he wanted.
When the left-handed Tanner Scott surfaced from the visitors’ bullpen with two outs in the eighth inning to face Brett Gardner, Boone summoned Gleyber Torres to hit for Gardner with Aaron Hicks on second, Clint Frazier on first and the score tied.
The right-handed hitting Torres sent Tanner’s second pitch into the right-center gap for a two-run double and a 3-1 victory at Yankee Stadium on Sunday to complete a four-game sweep of the O’s.
“I told him before, ‘There might be a big spot late so be ready,’ ” Boone said of Torres, who was told by bench coach Carlos Mendoza in the fifth inning to start preparing to hit if the Orioles used a left-handed reliever. “Once they brought Scott into that spot I felt it was his spot and he goes up there and put a great at-bat and obviously we win this game.’’
Torres, a regular player throughout his professional career, had five pinch-hitting appearances in the big leagues before Sunday and was hitless in three at-bats with two strikeouts.
“I started moving around in inning five. I prepared myself in the cage and hit off the machine. I prepared my mentality to help my team in that situation. I had the opportunity to help the team and I do my job,’’ said Torres, who wore clear goggles over contact lenses that helped him send the 1-0 pitch clocked at 97 mph the other way.
The victory was the Yankees’ fifth straight and was closed out by Aroldis Chapman’s perfect ninth with no visit from Mother Nature like Saturday.
Chapman was just one piece of a very strong bullpen that has bounced back from a disastrous outing last week in Buffalo when the Blue Jays scored 10 runs (nine earned) off Chad Green and Adam Ottavino in one inning.
Jonathan Holder replaced Ottavino in the sixth Sunday with runners on first and second and two outs and popped up DJ Stewart. Green, Zack Britton and Chapman retired the final nine Orioles to seal the win. It was Chapman’s second save of the year.
Coupled with the Red Sox topping the AL East-leading Rays, the Yankees moved within four games of first place. With the Blue Jays beating the Mets again, the Yankees remained in third, but were in position to jump Toronto if things had turned out differently.
J.A. Happ contributed a fifth straight strong outing but left after five innings with the score tied, 1-1. The veteran lefty gave up a run, five hits, struck out five and didn’t issue a walk. The run came in the second inning when Renato Nunez hit the first pitch into the right-field seats. Tyler Wade answered that with a homer to right in the third.
In Happ’s past five starts he has posted a 2.45 ERA and struck out 27 in 24 ¹/₃ innings compared to five walks.
Happ started a big double play in the fifth that began with Pat Valaika’s leadoff double that hit the third base bag and Rio Ruiz’ single that put runners at the corners with no outs.
DJ LeMahieu fielded Cedric Mullins grounder at third and turned it into an out by getting Valaika in a rundown. Happ then struck out Hanser Alberto with a 3-2 slider and watched catcher Kyle Higashioka throw out Ruiz attempting to swipe third and end the inning.
“We were in a tough spot but I still felt the stuff was fine,’’ said Happ, who kept the Orioles off-balance with off-speed pitches and was successful with the changeup. “Humberto is such a good bat-to-ball guy it was really good to get a swing and miss there and Higgy threw the guy out so that was huge.’’
Five runs in two games against a pedestrian pitching staff isn’t ideal. But they don’t attach grades to wins, and after losing 15 of 20 the Yankees appear to be back on track and likely to add Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge soon, which should bolster a lineup that could use some juice.