OAKLAND, Calif. — It makes no difference if the Yankees play in The Bronx or the East Bay, there is a distinct recipe they must follow to cover up gaping holes in several areas.
Their muscles at the plate and superb relievers will take the Yankees as far as they can go. Saturday night, Carlos Beltran’s bat and the arms belonging to Chasen Shreve, Justin Wilson, Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller carried the Yankees to a 5-3 win over the morbid Athletics in front of 25,223 at O.co Coliseum.
Beltran, who has sizzled all May after a poor April, crushed a two-run homer in the sixth that put the Yankees ahead, 4-3. He added an RBI single in the eighth. Betances and Miller made sure that lead stood up.
“It takes guys a while to get going,’’ manager Joe Girardi said of Beltran, who has four homers. “His track record tells he will come out of it.’’
In 24 May games, Beltran is batting .308 with four homers and 14 RBIs. That’s a long way from the .162 (11-for-68) the switch-hitter batted in April.
“I made a few adjustments and thank God I’m getting positive results. I’m being more aggressive, I was being too passive at the plate. I have to go out there with the mentality to hit,’’ Beltran said. “I feel better about myself. You can’t judge your season on one month. At the end of the day it is about winning, today was a good day for me and the ballclub, we needed this one.’’
The victory, only the Yankees’ second in 13 games at the crumbling ballpark, allowed them to maintain a one-game lead over the second-place Rays in the pedestrian AL East.
It also let Nathan Eovaldi escape without a loss on a night when he allowed 11 hits (all singles), but just three runs, in 4 ²/₃ innings. Girardi said he didn’t believe Eovaldi had his best fastball.
“I had to battle tonight,’’ Eovaldi said. “They were all singles, but I still have to do a better job.’’
The mound work after Eovaldi was almost perfect. Shreve surfaced with two outs and one on in the fifth and whiffed pinch-hitter Mark Canha. Shreve then struck out three in the sixth. Wilson retired the two batters he faced in the seventh and Betances ended the frame by catching Billy Butler looking at a 97-mph fastball.
Josh Riddick greeted Betances with a leadoff single in the eighth, but the big righty fanned the next two, getting Canha to swing through a 99-mph heater for the second out and retiring Eric Sogard on a harmless fly to center.
With help from Didi Gregorius and Mark Teixeira, who teamed to make a stunning defensive play, Miller worked a perfect ninth for his 15th save.
“He has done a really good job with what we have asked him to do,’’ Girardi said of the left-handed Shreve, who came to the Yankees in the same deal that brought struggling right-handed reliever David Carpenter from Atlanta for Manny Banuelos. “His role has increased as we go along.’’
Ideally, Girardi would like to find a right-hander to work regularly in front of Betances. Yet Saturday night, the lefties were just as big as Beltran and provided proof that the home runs and the bullpen will be the vehicles the Yankees travel.
