Another rough night for the bullpen was ultimately salvaged in the 10th inning by a two-out infield single from Jacoby Ellsbury and an unlikely save for Shreve, who needed just five pitches to finish off a 5-4 Yankees win against the Royals.
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The Royals would have preferred to bring All-Star closer Wade Davis back from the disabled list, but he just pitched in a rehab game for Omaha on Tuesday night. Jarrod Dyson then singled up the middle to put runners at the corners, and Dyson stole second without a play.
“What these guys did, they fought to the bitter end”, Royals manager Ned Yost said. Matt Strahm had gone consecutive days for the first time in his career. Kennedy was a Yankees 2006 first-round draft pick and made his major league debut with them in 2007 before being traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks after the 2009 season. Instead, his double advanced Didi Gregorius to third, and Gregorius went on to score on Brian McCann’s sac fly.
“Our situation was dire”, Yost said of the bullpen.
“It’s tough. I had enough energy so definitely I would have liked to go out there”, Tanaka said through a translator, “but you can’t do anything about the weather”.
In came rookie Ben Heller for his third career appearance.
Then Starlin Castro ripped his 19th home run of the year to left-center field, scoring Gary Sanchez and cutting the Yankees’ deficit to one. The Yankees moved ahead of the Seattle Mariners and gained a half-game on the Royals in the race for the second AL wild card but remain 3 1/2 games back of a playoff berth.
“I want to be that guy”, Shreve said of becoming a reliable late-inning arm before Betances.
The Royals appeared to have quickly erased the memories of their rain-delayed, 5-4 loss in 10 innings the previous night when Morales homered for the second straight game with two outs in the first. Third baseman Chase Headley let Paulo Orlando’s high-bouncing grounder get under his glove as he charged it with an out in the second inning.
Scott Alexander, who was just recalled from Triple-A Omaha, replaced Kennedy after he walked Aaron Hicks with one out. Brett Gardner drew his third walk to load the bases before Ellsbury’s hit. Severino, 22, tossed 2 1/3 scoreless relief innings on Tuesday for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, with five strikeouts. They had the bases loaded with no one out thanks to three straight singles from Gregorius, Castro, and McCann.
“The results just weren’t coming but I’ve been throwing the ball well”, said the Royals’ fifth starter, “but tonight I got an early lead and just tried to stick to it”.
Rosters expand on Thursday, and Severino will presumably arrive fresh and ready to pitch in relief.
Hicks left the game in the ninth with a right hamstring strain after pulled up lame while running to first base.
“He’s been there before and been able to come through”, manager Joe Girardi said. “It’s probably not a day-to-day thing”.
In other news, outfielder Lorenzo Cain got Wednesday night off as he deals with a wrist injury that has plagued him for about two weeks. “It’s been pretty sore”.
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