The Yankees still have their sights set on October, but before they have a chance to get there, they have to take care of the small things. Like beating the Royals. And getting to .500.
They knocked off a bad Royals team 6-2 Friday night at the Stadium and have a chance to even their record (9-10) with another victory over Kansas City on Saturday in The Bronx.
CC Sabathia pitched another solid game after coming off the injured list, limiting the Royals to just an unearned run in five innings.
And the offense and bullpen did enough to get Sabathia his first win of the season and 247th of his career. They also beat Jakob Junis, who derailed Aaron Judge’s 2018 season when he hit him with a pitch on July 26, causing a chip fracture in his right wrist that led to a 45-game absence.
This one, though, wasn’t pretty as the Yankees committed three more errors, bringing their season total to 16. Only four teams in the majors have made more.
“It’s a little frustrating, because there are a couple of plays that have got to be made,’’ manager Aaron Boone said. “It maybe takes away from what were a lot of good plays.”
To Boone’s point, Gleyber Torres made an outstanding bare-handed play in the seventh to rob Whit Merrifield of a hit, but an inning later, the shortstop botched a Jorge Soler grounder.
“We did a lot of really good things in this game,’’ Boone said. “There were a couple lapses we’ve got to tighten up … I feel for the most part we’re running out good defenders in different spots, but we’ve got to lock in on finishing the play.”
Despite those miscues, the Yankees still managed to win for the third time in four games.
This one turned in the third inning.
Sabathia walked Martin Maldonado to start the inning before Terrance Gore bunted in Sabathia’s direction. The left-hander had little chance to get Gore, but fired to first anyway and threw the ball away, moving the runners to second and third.
Clint Frazier filled in for Aaron Judge in right, with Judge at DH, and when Merrifield hit a fly ball to right and Maldonado tried to score, he was thrown out easily despite Frazier’s throw being up the third base line.
Sabathia then got the speedy Billy Hamilton to hit an easy grounder to first, but Luke Voit fumbled the ball and Hamilton reached to extend the inning.
Adalberto Mondesi followed with a single through the right side of the infield to give the Royals a 1-0 lead. Sabathia didn’t allow another run.
The Yankees went ahead in the bottom of the inning with a one-out single by Tyler Wade followed by a two-run homer by Brett Gardner, whose grand slam in the seventh on Wednesday had propelled them to a win over Boston.
This one did the same versus Kansas City, in less dramatic fashion.
“For us to be able to overcome a couple of mistakes we made, it was a good win,’’ Gardner said. “We haven’t played our best ball yet.’’
Sabathia recovered from the rocky third and held the Royals scoreless in the fourth and fifth, pitching around a pair of walks in his last inning.
He left after five innings and 86 pitches, replaced by Luis Cessa, who immediately allowed back-to-back doubles by Hunter Dozier and Gordon, cutting the lead to 3-2.
The right-hander recovered to get Soler to ground to second — moving Alex Gordon to third — and then struck out Chris Owings and Maldonado to preserve the lead.
The Yankees added runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh to put the game away.
“When we get our guys back, I think we’ll start rolling,’’ Sabathia said. “It’s the attitude you take as you go through adversity. When you get back to full strength, you’re that much better.’’