SAN DIEGO — Chad Green certainly earned himself another start.
Whether he will get another one soon remains to be seen.
The rookie righthander, brought up from the minors over the weekend to make his second big-league start, pitched six terrific innings Sunday afternoon, leading the Yankees to a 6-3 victory over the Padres in front of 42,131 at Petco Park.
The victory allowed the Yankees (40-41), who blew it open with a three-run ninth that included the second of Mark Teixeira’s two homers in the game, to avoid a sweep at the hands of the Padres (35-47).
The Yankees, seven games behind the Orioles in the AL East at the official halfway point of the season, continue a three-city, 10-game trip Monday afternoon in Chicago against the White Sox.
Green, 25, hit hard in a spot start May 16 in Arizona, allowed one run and three hits in six innings. Green, who had a 1.54 ERA in 14 starts with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, struck out eight and did not walk a batter.
Joe Girardi left himself open to second-guessing by pinch hitting for Green, who had thrown only 75 pitches, in the top of the seventh, but his bullpen, shaky as it was, bailed him out, as did the late surge by the offense.
Dellin Betances, who threw 27 pitches Saturday night, allowed back-to-back singles to Matt Kemp and Yangervis Solarte (four hits) to start the seventh but pitched out of it. After Alex Dickerson’s bunt moved Kemp to third, Betances struck out Derek Norris swinging at a full-count curveball and Ryan Schimpf looking at a 1-and-2 curveball to keep it a 2-1 game.
Andrew Miller, who gave up Melvin Upton Jr.’s walk-off homer on his first pitch of the ninth inning the night before, took the mound in the eighth with a 3-1 lead, courtesy of Teixeira 400th career homer in the top of the inning. Miller allowed two runners to reach base — Upton struck out for the second out in between Christian Bethancourt’s single and Wil Myers’ walk — but got Kemp to ground to Teixeira, who flipped to Miller for the third out. Kemp had been 5-for-6 against Miller.
Brett Gardner’s single drove in Jacoby Ellsbury (two hits and a walk) in the top of the ninth, and Teixeira’s two-run homer pushed the lead to 6-1 and made it a non-save situation.
Anthony Swarzak allowed a two-run homer by Dickerson in the ninth to make it 6-3 and Girardi brought on Aroldis Chapman, who retired three straight for his 16th save.
Padres righthander Andrew Cashner, activated earlier in the day from the DL after missing 18 games with a strained neck, allowed two runs (one earned) and six hits in six innings.
The Yankees had 10 hits overall, three by struggling Aaron Hicks. Didi Gregorius scored two runs, one on a line-drive homer just inside the rightfield foul pole in the fourth that made it 2-1.
The Yankees took a 1-0 lead in the second, aided by the Padres’ defense. Gregorius reached when shortstop Alexei Ramirez booted his routine grounder and Hicks singled, putting runners at the corners with none out for Ronald Torreyes. Torreyes grounded into a double play but the run scored, giving Green a 1-0 lead.
It did not last long as former Yankee Solarte led off the second by sending a 2-and-1 fastball to the opposite field and just over the leftfield wall for his fifth homer of the season.
After Gregorius’ homer, Green worked out of trouble to hold the 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fourth. Myers singled and, after Kemp struck out, Solarte yanked a hanging curveball down the first-base line for a double that put runners at second and third for Dickerson. Green fell behind 3-and-1 before Dickerson lined one back to him. Green caught it, then doubled Solarte off second.
..... - Newsday