The Bronx Bombers are finally bombing.
They won a second straight series for the first time this season, hitting three home runs and defeating the Royals, 7-3, Thursday night at the Stadium. In taking three of four from the pitching-poor Royals, the Yankees totaled nine home runs.
The Yankees (14-19) improved to 5-2 on a 10-game homestand, with the AL Central-leading White Sox arriving Friday night.
Starlin Castro started things with a solo homer in the first and Chase Headley, who hadn’t had an extra-base hit this season, hit a two-run homer in the second. Didi Gregorius added a two-run shot in the fourth.
Nathan Eovaldi was merely OK and in many ways was fortunate. He allowed three runs and eight hits in five innings, departing with a 5-3 lead.
Ian Kennedy, drafted 21st overall by the Yankees in 2006 and dealt to the Diamondbacks in December 2009, came in 4-2 with a 2.13 ERA. He allowed seven runs and five hits, including three homers, in 6 1⁄3 innings. Former Yankee Chien-Ming Wang allowed an inherited runner to score in the seventh.
Eovaldi pitched out of trouble in the first. Lorenzo Cain singled with one out, a liner off Eovaldi’s right knee, and went to third on Eric Hosmer’s single to center in which Aaron Hicks was slow charging the ball. Eovaldi got out of it, getting Kendrys Morales to ground into a 4-6-3 double play.
The Yankees quickly took the lead in the bottom half when Castro took a belt-high fastball the other way to right-center for his fourth homer. Castro improved to 20 for his last 59.
After Eovaldi retired the Royals in order on 12 pitches in the second, the Yankees added on in the second. Carlos Beltran drew a four-pitch walk and Kennedy went to 2-and-0 against Hicks, in an 8-for-18 stretch coming in. Hicks fouled to third, bringing up Headley. Kennedy fell behind 3-and-1 before Headley, batting lefty, poked a 93-mph fastball down the leftfield line for a two-run homer that made it 3-0.
Kennedy had allowed only three homers all season.
Two Royals reached in the third, when Christian Colon led off with a single and Cain singled with two outs. The dangerous Hosmer hit a ground smash to first, where Mark Teixeira made a diving stop to his right. Teixeira flipped to a covering Eovaldi for the third out.
Eovaldi was not as fortunate in the fourth. Gordon launched a full-count, 98-mph fastball to deep right-center with one out for his fourth homer. After Eovaldi struck out Salvador Perez, Cheslor Cuthbert roped a double into the gap in right-center and Colon lined an opposite-field single to right, making it 3-2. Eovaldi had allowed six hits through four innings.
Gregorius’ two-run shot with two outs in the bottom half pushed the Yankees’ lead back to three runs, at 5-2.
Eovaldi was fortunate a half-inning later to depart still holding a lead. He retired Escobar and Cain but Hosmer doubled. A walk to Kendrys Morales up Gordon, who scorched an RBI single to center, making it 5-3.
Next came Perez, who took a 1-and-2 splitter opposite-field and nearly put it in the seats. But the ball died in Beltran’s glove at the base of the wall in right, allowing the crowd, and Eovaldi, to exhale.
..... - Newsday