Backed by Sabathia's strong start, Yankees get contributions from entire lineup in 6-3 win

Coming into tonight’s game, the Yankees have been firing on all cylinders going an MLB-best 7-2 over their last nine games. With another shut down performance from their starting pitching, CC Sabathia had a stellar night on the hill allowing just four hits, and two earned runs over 6 2/3 innings pitched. He really made two bad pitches all night and paid the price for them allowing solo homers to Marwin Gonzalez and Evan Gattis. The offense was able to get behind Sabathia early getting contributions from nearly every starter as the Yankees rattled off 13 hits as a team and six runs giving them their eighth win in their last 10 games by a 6-3 score.

Photo Credit: Eric Christian Smith | AP

For the second night in a row, the Astros put a run on the board in the first inning with a solo homer, this one by Marwin Gonzalez on 1-2 fastball right down the middle. However, the Yankees would bounce right back in the top of the second putting up a crooked number on the scoreboard thanks to four hits.

Brian McCann led off the second inning with a single, with Mark Teixeira following it up with a double to put runners on second and third with nobody out. Didi Gregorius, the ensuing hitter, flied out to deep left field to bring home McCann. Starlin Castro joined the hit parade with a single to move Teixeira to third and Chase Headley brought Tex home with an RBI single up the middle.

The Yankees would get their third run in the top of the third inning thanks to Starlin Castro legging out an infield single to score Carlos Beltran, who led off the inning with a single. McCann and Teixeira started another rally in the fifth inning after a hit-by-pitch and single. Gregorius then grounded out moving the runners to scoring position with one away. After an intention walk to Castro, Headley hit a sacrifice fly to center field to score McCann to give the Yankees a 4-1 lead. Then, Aaron Hicks drove Teixeira and Castro home on a two-RBI triple down the right field line to put the Yankees up 6-1.

Photo Credit: Eric Christian Smith | AP

Evan Gattis led off the seventh inning with a solo homer on a 3-2 fastball that caught too much of the plate. Sabathia would allow a two-out single to Carlos Gomez and was then lifted in favor of Anthony Swarzak, who switched his number from 43 to 41 to allow Adam Warren to take back his number 43. Swarzak allowed a solo homer to Gonzalez in the eighth to move the score to 6-3. Swarzak then issued a walk to Carlos Correa forcing Joe Girardi's hand in going to Dellin Betances with two outs in the eighth. Betances struggled in the back-to-back walks to Gattis and Alex Bregman before striking Jason Castro out looking to get out of a bases loaded jam. Andrew Miller came on for the save and picked up his second save in consecutive nights after being given the closer role once again.

Win: CC Sabathia (6-8, 3.95 ERA): 6.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R (2 ER), 2 BB, 5 K

Loss: Doug Fister (10-7, 3.73 ERA): 4.2 IP, 9 H, 6 R (6 ER), 3 BB, 3 K
Save: Andrew Miller (9)

Notables:

Jacoby Ellsbury: 3-5, 2B, CS

Carlos Beltran: 2-5, R

Mark Teixeira: 2-3, 2B, 2 R

Starlin Castro: 2-4, R, RBI, BB

Chase Headley: 1-3, 2 RBI, SAC Fly

Aaron Hicks: 1-4, 3B, 2 RBI

Marwin Gonzalez: 2-5, 2 HR (9, 10), 2 RBI

Evan Gattis: 1-3, HR (17)

Article by: Chad Raines

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