CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – With temperatures in the low 40s and wind chills in the 30s, the slumping Yankees found a way to warm up Thursday night.
Aided by nine walks from Indians pitchers, New York was able to overcome their largest deficit of the season while the Cleveland's offense went back into hibernation.
Behind three hits from Gleyber Torres and a home run from Kyle Higashioka, New York climbed out of a 3-0 hole and doubled up the Indians 6-3 at Progressive Field dropping Cleveland back below .500 at 8-9 on the young season.
“I thought uncharacteristically with our whole staff we had a bunch of walks, a lot of deep counts,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “We fell behind a lot and had to climb back into some counts. That obviously wasn’t our goal tonight to do that. But I thought it was kind of staff-wide. We didn’t throw a lot of strikes tonight.
“Whatever the conditions are, both teams gotta play. We need to find a way to throw more strikes.”
New York, who won for just the second time in eight games, entered the night 0-7 when trailing by 3 or more runs. They're now 1-7.
Yankees starter Domingo German picked up his first victory of the season behind six solid innings that saw him allow three runs, tow earned, on seven hits. He walked one and struck out six.
Aaron Civale, who allowed three runs, two earned on four hits with four walks, six strikeouts and had a balk, did not factor in the decision for Cleveland. He departed in the sixth after allowing a one-out single to Aaron Hicks.
“I think I was a little too careful tonight,” Civale said. “I’ve just got to be more aggressive with my pitches.
“I know I got ahead pretty well early on. Just too picky with some of the pitches throughout the game. Didn’t attack as well as I should have.”
The Indians offense came in the first, with an assist from the Yankees, who could’ve easily been charged with three errors in the inning.
Eddie Rosario singled off of Mike Ford's glove at first, scoring Cesar Hernandez for a 1-0 lead. Franmil Reyes hit a comebacker to German, who dropped the ball. The error allowed Jose Ramirez to score from third. Josh Naylor rifled a single to right scoring Rosario from second following a slide that beat Clint Frasier’s throw from right field for a 3-0 advantage.
And then the bats went silent.
“Early on, I give the kid credit ’cause he falls behind 3-0 and then it seemed like when he needed to he could reach back for a little bit more when there were some guys on base in the middle innings,” Francona said. “He got them to a point in the game and kept us off the scoreboard after that first inning.”
New York got all three runs back in the third inning starting with an RBI single to left from DJ LeMahieu. Gleyber Torres lined a two-out single up the alley in right center where right fielder Josh Naylor kicked the ball allowing two runs to score to tie the game at 3.
“I don’t think he ever got it in his glove cleanly. I think he was trying to be a little too quick,” Francona said of Naylor’s error. “They’re gonna score one there for sure. I just think he tried to get a little too quick and he started moving his body to spin and didn’t have the ball yet.”
Rougned Odor, who came into Thursday night’s game hitting .120 with 3 RBI, broke the deadlock with a two-out, two-run single to center to give the Yankees a 5-3 lead and sent reliever Nick Wittgren to the showers.
Wittgren was charged with the loss for allowing two earned runs on two hits with two walks and two strikeouts.
“Guys are usually pretty good about pounding the zone,” Francona said. “It hurt us tonight.”
In the eighth, reliever Cal Quantrill was greeted by Higashioka with a 420-foot homer to dead center to extend New York’s lead to 6-3.
Aroldis Chapman struck out the side in the ninth for his third save of the season.
