COMING UP BIG: Robinson Cano belts a two-run, game-tying double in the seventh inning, followed by Lyle Overbay’s game-winning sacrifice fly later in the inning (right), leading the Yankees to a 4-3 victory over the Mariners last night. (Paul J. Bereswell (2))
The CC Sabathia-Felix Hernandez duel might not have lived up to the billing, but the Yankees still put on a good show in The Bronx last night, finding a way to win another game they were in danger of losing.
Last night, the Yankees took advantage of Hernandez’s departure after the sixth inning and scored three runs in the seventh to take the lead in a 4-3 win over the Mariners at the Stadium.
Though the Yankees welcomed back Curtis Granderson from his fractured right forearm, it was Robinson Cano and Lyle Overbay — again — who delivered in the clutch.
“All year long, he’s been driving in runs,” Cano said of Overbay, who has become much more than a run-of-the-mill fill-in for Mark Teixeira. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a righty or a lefty out there, he finds a way to get guys in.”
Last night, Overbay drove in Cano with the winning run on a sacrifice fly after Cano tied the game at 3-3 with a two-run double off left-hander Charlie Furbush (0-2).
The shot got Sabathia off the hook. The Yankees No. 1 starter gave up three runs — two earned — in 6 1/3 innings and was in line to get the loss before the comeback.
The bullpen, unscored upon in the past nine games, was terrific again as the Yankees won for the seventh time in their last eight to improve to 25-14 and go to two games ahead of the Orioles in the AL East.
David Robertson preserved the lead in the eighth when pinch-hitter Justin Smoak lined into an inning-ending double play to shortstop Jayson Nix with runners on first and second.
Mariano Rivera came up with his 16th save in as many chances with a scoreless ninth.
It made a winner out of Shawn Kelley, who entered the game with runners on the corners in the top of the seventh and responded by fanning Kelly Shoppach and getting Raul Ibanez to fly out to left.
Ibanez, last year’s postseason hero with the Yankees, looked at home again in The Bronx when he gave the Mariners a 3-0 lead with a two-run homer to right off Sabathia in the sixth.
Though Hernandez was excellent — and at times dominant — he was not at full strength for most of the outing.
After mowing down the Yankees in the first three inning, the Mariners ace was involved in a collision at first base in the fourth when he tried to cover the bag and got in Overbay’s way as he tried to beat out a grounder to first.
Hernandez was called for interference. He recovered to strike out the next two, but faltered in the sixth, when his back stiffened, according to manager Eric Wedge.
Hernandez fielded a Granderson grounder and fired to second and was then clearly in discomfort. He stayed in the game despite a second visit from the trainer, and Overbay capitalized by ripping a double to right for the Yankees’ first run.
Hernandez was gone after the inning.
“I think I took more of it than he did,” said Overbay, who added he didn’t notice a difference in Hernandez after the run-in.
If Overbay did, he didn’t show it and neither did the Yankees, who keep finding ways to win.
“I still think we have a lot of really good players,” manager Joe Girardi said. “Maybe not the names we’re used to having, but guys have had big years.”