CLEVELAND — It was the kind of big hit that has eluded the Yankees during much of the season’s first half.
With one out and a man on first in the top of the 11th inning Saturday, Brian McCann lined an RBI double to right to drive in what proved to be the winning run in a 7-6 victory over the Indians in front of 32,951 at Progressive Field.
Aroldis Chapman, who stranded runners at first and second after coming on with two outs in the ninth and pitched a perfect 10th, added a scoreless 11th to earn the victory.
The Yankees (43-44) will send Masahiro Tanaka to the mound Sunday afternoon as they try to take three of four from the AL Central-leading Indians (52-35) and pull into the All-Star break as a .500 team.
McCann and Carlos Beltran each had three of the Yankees’ 14 hits, and Didi Gregorius’ tiebreaking two-run homer in the third and Brett Gardner’s go-ahead three-run triple in the sixth had been the offensive highlights for the Yankees before the 11th.
After Tommy Hunter retired the first two batters in the 11th, Beltran singled and and Joe Girardi put in Ronald Torreyes to pinch run. McCann then drove a first-pitch fastball to the base of the wall in right for a 7-6 lead.
Given the way the bizarre game went, there was some moderate drama in the bottom of the 11th. Chapman walked Jason Kipnis but got Francisco Lindor (three hits) to fly to right and picked off Kipnis, who took off for second before Chapman delivered to the plate. Chapman struck out Mike Napoli to end it.
The Yankees had gone ahead 3-1 on Gregorius’ homer off Danny Salazar and 6-5 on Gardner’s triple off Dan Otero, but Dellin Betances allowed the tying run to score in the seventh. With runners on first and third and one out, he struck out Carlos Santana and got ahead of Jose Ramirez 0-and-2 but hung a breaking ball that Ramirez (three hits, three RBIs) lined to right for an RBI single.
In the ninth, Lindor singled against Andrew Miller after fouling off six straight pitches and Napoli walked with none out. Santana then hit a chopper to short and Gregorius lost the ball as he attempted to barehand it. But as Lindor ran to third, he collided with Chase Headley, who also was pursuing the grounder, and was called out by third-base umpire Tom Hallion for interference. That put runners on first and second with one out. Miller struck out Ramirez and Chapman struck out Juan Uribe to escape the jam.
For the fourth straight outing, CC Sabathia was not sharp, allowing five runs and seven hits in 5 2⁄3 innings. Fortunately for him and the Yankees, Salazar — who came in 10-3 with a 2.36 ERA — didn’t have it, either. He allowed eight hits in 5 2⁄3 innings and wound up being charged with six runs when Otero allowed three inherited runners to score on Gardner’s opposite-field triple down the leftfield line.
The Indians grabbed the lead in the first. Sabathia hit Rajai Davis with a 0-and-2 fastball and Kipnis, who homered three times in the first two games of the series, bunted him to second. With Lindor at the plate, Davis caught the Yankees sleeping, stealing third as McCann threw the ball back to Sabathia after his 1-and-1 delivery. With the infield in, Sabathia got Lindor to ground to third, but Santana’s infield single deep into the hole at short, where Gregorius made a diving stop, made it 1-0.
The Yankees broke through in the third. Gardner led off by slicing a double to left and Jacoby Ellsbury’s groundout advanced him to third. Beltran’s single to right tied it at 1 and gave the 39-year-old a team-best 55 RBIs. Gregorius then lined a 0-and-2 fastball to right for his 11th homer and a 3-1 lead.
In the bottom of the inning, Kipnis walked with one out, went to third on Lindor’s single to right and scored on Napoli’s single to left. Santana followed with a screamer to right that Aaron Hicks misjudged, with the ball sailing over his head for an RBI double that made it 3-3, and Ramirez’s hard single to right made it 4-3. Ramirez’s two-out infield single in the fifth gave the Indians a 5-3 lead.
With two outs and none on in the sixth, Headley singled and Rob Refsnyder reached on an infield single after Salazar deflected his grounder up the middle. After Alex Rodriguez pinch hit and drew a walk to load the bases, Terry Francona brought in Otero to face Gardner, Otero, who entered the game with a 1.32 ERA, got ahead 1-and-2 before Gardner sliced a three-run triple down the leftfield line that gave the Yankees a 6-5 lead.
..... - Newsday