Yanks leave with win over Giants, unsure who will return
NEW YORK (AP) - Aroldis Chapman and the rest of the New York Yankees dressed in their Sunday best for a flight to Houston following a 5-2 win over the San Francisco Giants that completed a 6-4 homestand.
Who returns in 10 days is unclear.
"We're very much in this," Brett Gardner said. "There's no point in me sitting here campaigning for us to stay together."
Nathan Eovaldi (9-6) pitched shutout ball into the seventh inning, Carlos Beltran and Mark Teixeira hit early solo home runs of Jeff Samardzija (9-6) and Chad Green pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings.
But the Yankees (50-48), who matched their season high of two games over .500, may have shown their management too little, too late to prevent a selloff of veterans ahead of the Aug. 1 deadline for trades without waivers. New York trails AL East-leading Baltimore by 7 1/2 games and is 4 1/2 games behind Toronto for the league's second wild card, with the Astros and Detroit also ahead.
Chapman has 20 saves in 21 chances and his fastball, at up to 105.1 mph, has entertained fans focusing on the scoreboard velocity of every pitch.
"It's tough. I feel comfortable here. I feel like part of the family here," he said through an interpreter, adding the Yankees have been talking to his agent.
Chapman has formed the Yankees' No Runs DMC bullpen trio with Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller, which has 203 strikeouts in 123 2/3 innings. Chapman, pitcher Ivan Nova, Beltran and Teixeira are eligible for free agency at the end of the season; Miller, signed through 2018 at $9 million, also is of interest to contenders.
"We don't want to see him go," Teixeira said of Chapman. "We're trying to win games, and he's a big part of that."
Chapman maintained he could be dealt and still re-sign with the Yankees as a free agent during the offseason.
"Oh yeah, if there's a possibility, and God willing, yes," he said.
Beltran hit his team-best 21st home run in the first and Teixeira doubled the lead on the second with his 200th home run for the Yankees, his sixth in 20 games since returning from the disabled list. Teixeira and Jacoby Ellsbury wore white Ken Griffey Jr. Nike Swingman spikes with gold soles as a tribute to Junior's induction Sunday into baseball's Hall of Fame.
New York chased Samardzija in the sixth, when Ellsbury grounded into a run-scoring double play, Starlin Castro singled in a run and Didi Gregorius hit an RBI double.
Making his second start following a brief bullpen banishment, Eovaldi used a new cutter for the second time in the homestand. He escaped bases-loaded, one-out trouble in a 33-pitch fourth inning when Mac Williamson fouled out and Ramiro Pena grounded out.
Eovaldi left after Angel Pagan's two-out double on his 118th pitch, two shy of his career high. With the No Runs DMC trio unavailable after two days of heavy use, Chasen Shreve came in and loaded the bases with a walk to Brandon Belt, and Buster Posey poked an opposite-field, two-run single to right against Green, who then retired Brandon Crawford on a groundout.
After losing the first two games of the homestand to Boston, the Yankees won six of eight against the Red Sox, Orioles and Giants.
"We've told our players, and it includes me, you have to stay away from the noise, what you're hearing and rumors and things that might be going on," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said.
Beltran, traded in midseason from Kansas City to Houston in 2004 and from the New York Mets to San Francisco in 2011, knows not to think too far ahead.
"I've been in this situation before," the 39-year-old said. "For me it's day by day."
WEB GEM
New York turned a spectacular 4-1-5 inning-ending double play in the eighth. Pena grounded past a diving Teixeira at first but Castro slid on his stomach to come up with the ball on the outfield grass between first and second, and from his knees threw to Green covering first. The pitcher made a one-hop throw to third, where Chase Headley tagged a sliding Williamson.
"That's a play we work on a lot in spring training," Green said.
UP NEXT
Yankees: RHP Michael Pineda (4-9) starts Monday and LHP Dallas Keuchel (6-9), the AL Cy Young Award winner, goes for the Astros. Opponents are hitting .181 in Pineda's last five starts.