Yanks’ invincible reliever finally gets dinged, still looks great
By retiring the first two White Sox in the seventh inning Monday night, Adam Warren had faced 22 hitters this season and gotten them all out.
Then he issued a walk in the seventh, a single in the eighth and a single and an RBI double in the ninth.
“There were a lot of firsts,’’ Warren said. “First walk, first hit and first run.’’
Still, Warren gives Joe Girardi something the manager didn’t have last year before Warren was reacquired from the Cubs in late July or after he returned: a dependable multi-inning reliever who can pitch anywhere in the game. In 2 ¹/₃ innings in Monday night’s 7-4 win over the White Sox, Warren gave up a run, a walk and three hits.
“I am better,’’ Warren said. “It’s confidence and throwing with conviction. I am throwing more strikes.’’
After going 12-for-69 (.174) with runners in scoring position in their previous seven games (all wins), the Yankees were 3-for-7 Monday night with the big blow Matt Holliday’s three-run homer in the five-run third inning. Holliday had been hitless in his previous dozen at-bats and missed the previous two games with lower-back stiffness.
Combine Monday night’s performance with Sunday’s 4-for-7 in which Greg Bird homered with a runner on third and the Yankees are 7-for-14 (.500) in the past two games.
“No, because it’s a small sample,’’ said Girardi, whose hitters are batting .213 (26-for-122) with runners in scoring position in the first 13 games, when asked if the paltry numbers were bothersome. “You can look at it two different ways. You can look at it that we aren’t hitting with runners in scoring position or you can look that we are getting a lot of runners on.
“I believe it’s going to change where they are going to start hitting with runners in scoring position. As long as our approach stays good and guys don’t start swinging wildly and remain patient, good things are going to happen.’’
Bird had his best game of the young season Sunday night when he went 3-for-3 with a two-run homer, a double, a single and a walk but he wasn’t in the lineup against lefty Derek Holland on Monday night.
“We feel that [Bird] is an every-day player and Holland is really tough on lefties,’’ said Girardi, who started the right-handed hitting Chris Carter at first base and batted him seventh. “We got as many righties in there as we could.’’
Bird hit for Carter in the eighth. After striking out he remained in the game at first base.
The lone lefty swinger in Girardi’s lineup was Jacoby Ellsbury and there was a good reason for it since he was hitting .444 (8-for-18) against Holland. Brett Gardner, a 167 (1-for-6) hitter off Holland, wasn’t in left field. Switch-hitter Aaron Hicks replaced Gardner. Hicks, who homered in each of the previous three games, was 0-for-3 against Holland.
Ellsbury went 2-for-3 against Holland.
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James Kaprielian will undergo Tommy John surgery on his right elbow Tuesday in California.
Girardi said Didi Gregorius is scheduled to play in a minor league rehab game this week, but wasn’t sure of the exact date. Since the shortstop started the season on the DL with a right shoulder problem suffered while playing second base for the Netherlands in the WBC, the Yankees haven’t had their regular lineup for one game yet. And with Gary Sanchez out since April 9 with a right biceps injury that has him on the DL, Girardi has been forced to use multiple lineups.
“You would like to have some consistency and you remember the first three or four days we used pretty much the same lineup,’’ said Girardi, who used the same lineup for the first four games and a different one for the following nine including Monday night. “We started to get dinged up a little bit and we had some sickness and guys were really struggling so we moved guys around. You would like to have some consistency.’’