Saturday’s formula for success: Strong pitching from C. Sabathia and Dellin Betances, plus a two-run homer by Matt Holliday.
A subtle commentary on the current state of the Yankees’ offense appeared on, of all places, the giant center-field video screen at Yankee Stadium between innings of the Saturday’s game against the Oakland Athletics.
The film featured an impressive display of hits by a player on the Yankees’ payroll, but not yet in a major-league uniform: Gleyber Torres, 20, an infield prospect who has played all of three games for the Class AAA affiliate in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
The club might have been sending a signal to its slumping — and benched — third baseman, Chase Headley, or assuring its restive fan base that there was no need to panic, because help was on the way.
Whatever the intention, one message came through loud and clear: Right now, there is no one in the Yankees’ lineup worthy of a highlight video.
Thanks largely to another strong outing from C. Sabathia, who allowed two runs on six hits over six and a third innings and struck out a season-high nine batters, the Yankees held on to win Saturday’s game, 3-2. But for most of the afternoon, the offense was even worse than it had been on Friday, when the Yankees didn’ t score until the ninth inning of a 4-1 defeat.
Although the Yankees finagled a first-inning run on Saturday, they were held hitless for 5⅔ innings by Jharel Cotton, who a day earlier had been a member of the Class AAA Nashville Sounds.
Matt Holliday’s two-run homer with two out in the sixth was the Yankees’ first hit of the game. Starlin Castro followed with a single, which ended Cotton’s day after 107 pitches. That was the second and last hit of the day for a Yankees offense that has gone from red-hot in April to tepid in May.
For the second consecutive game, the Yankees — who continue to lead the American League in runs and home runs (70, one more than the Athletics) — had been stifled by a pitching staff that has a higher earned run average than all but two others in the A. L.
The Yankees have scored a total of 26 runs in their last nine games, of which they have lost five. Headley has just two hits in his last 27 at-bats, and even Aaron Judge — in whose honor the Yankees this week constructed a faux jury box in right field called The Judge’s Chambers — has been far less fearsome lately. After belting 13 home runs in his first 92 at-bats of the season, Judge has hit just two in his last 67.
The A’s were forced to call up Cotton because of injuries to Kendall Graveman, who was scratched from a scheduled start on Friday, and Jesse Hahn, who was placed on the disabled list on Saturday.
Cotton, who was on the A’s Opening Day roster and made seven starts before being sent down early this month, showed some first-inning jitters, walking Gary Sanchez, hitting Holliday with a pitch, throwing a wild pitch that advanced the runners to second and third and then allowing a run on Castro’s sacrifice fly.
With the Yankees clinging to a one-run lead in the eighth, their setup man, Tyler Clippard, struggled once again, putting two runners on base before Dellin Betances came on to earn a five-out save.
INSIDE PITCH
Both teams had problems with the home plate umpire Will Little ’s strike zone — of the 22 strikeouts in the game, nine were looking — and the frustration of the A’s bubbled over into two eighth-inning ejections. Jed Lowrie was ejected after he was called out looking and argued that Tyler Clippard ’s fastball was low. Three hitters later, with runners on second and third and Oakland trailing by a run, Little called out Trevor Plouffe on a breaking ball. A’s Manager Bob Melvin came out to argue and was ejected. As a result of the two ejections, the A’s lost their designated hitter for the rest of the game and were forced to insert a pitcher into the third spot in their batting order.
