When the Yankees acquired J. A. Happ last week, they were confident his recent performance with the Blue Jays didn’t tell the full story of…
When the Yankees acquired J. A. Happ last week, they were confident his recent performance with the Blue Jays didn’t tell the full story of the left-hander’s effectiveness.
Happ had pitched to a 6.03 ERA in his final six starts for Toronto, hardly the stuff of leading a rotation into the postseason.
On Sunday, Happ gave an early signal the Yankees were right to have brushed those struggles aside, as Happ delivered a strong outing in his Bronx debut.
He gave up just one run in six innings, and the Yankees got a two-run homer in the first from Aaron Hicks to beat the Royals, 6-3.
The victory also provided the Yankees with a much-needed series victory, as they took three-of-four from the last-place Royals and stayed 5½ games behind the seemingly unbeatable Red Sox, who beat the Twins again in Boston.
Happ gave up just three hits and a walk and didn’t give up a run until Salvador Perez took him deep with two outs in the sixth.
By then, the Yankees were up 5-0 and well on their way to winning consecutive games for the first time since July 11-12.
“I feel like he’s more in that upper tier [of starters] than people want to acknowledge,’’ Aaron Boone said before the game. “I think he enjoys the better competition. The more important the games are, he feels like he’s set to thrive in those situations. Hopefully starting today, he’ll be a really important part of our rotation.’’
They got to Kansas City right-hander Burch Smith in a hurry.
With two outs and no one on in the first, Didi Gregorius reached on a four-pitch walk. After Hicks tried to bunt against the shift, but pushed it foul, Gregorius moved to second when first baseman Hunter Dozier muffed Smith’s pickoff attempt. With Gregorius on second, Hicks drilled a two-run homer off the right-field foul pole to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead.
In the fourth, Hicks sent a bullet leadoff double to right. Gleyber Torres lined to left and Greg Bird flied to right before Miguel Andujar came through with an RBI single to center to make it 3-0.
Neil Walker followed with a walk and Austin Romine sent a fly ball to deep right, but Brett Phillips — in his first game since arriving in a trade from Milwaukee for Mike Moustakas — robbed Romine of an extra-base hit with a leaping grab near the wall.
The Yankees opened the fifth with singles by Brett Gardner and Giancarlo Stanton. Both runners advanced on a Gregorius ground out. Hicks walked to load the bases for Torres, who grounded to second.
Originally called a double play, the Yankees challenged the play, and second baseman Whit Merrifield was ruled to have missed the tag on Hicks. Gardner scored on the play and the inning was extended. Bird then hit a slow roller toward second, but Merrifield couldn’t get to it in time and Bird had an RBI single.
The Royals finally got to Happ in the sixth with Salvador Perez’s two-out homer, but a sacrifice fly by Stanton in the bottom of the inning put the Yankees up 6-1.
Chad Green surrendered a leadoff homer to Dozier in the seventh, followed by an Alex Gordon double, but didn’t give up another run.
Rosell Herrera opened the eighth with a homer off David Robertson to make it 6-3. Green has given up three homers in his last six outings, while Robertson has allowed homers two days in a row.
Aroldis Chapman tossed a scoreless ninth for the save.
