ROYAL PAINS: “King” Felix Hernandez is checked out on the mound after tweaking his back in the seventh inning yesterday. The Mariners ace failed in his second try this season to beat the Yankees. (
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SEATTLE — The Yankees of recent vintage that you loathed, the ones featuring un-clutch big names like Alex You-Know-Who and The Loud Guy in Right Field, built a reputation for beating up on the slop pitchers and going down hard against the game’s best.
So it figures this 2013 group, which has become everything we don’t expect of a Yankees club beside its record, continues to prevail against established aces.
Yesterday, for the second and very likely last time this season, the Yankees survived an encounter with their longtime nemesis Felix Hernandez, beating the Mariners 2-1 at Safeco Field when Chris Stewart grounded a two-out, ninth-inning single against Yoervis Medina to break the tie. That’s twice this year they have slapped King Felix with a no-decision and wound up winning the game — the same thing happened in a 4-3 Yankees victory May 14 at Yankee Stadium.
“Of course, everybody wants to do something, overcome something that’s difficult,” Ichiro Suzuki, who scored the winning run, said through his interpreter, Allen Turner. “That’s what we’re doing. So we beat their best. I think that gratification is [important].”
The Yankees, now 3-1 on this West Coast swing, have yet to lose to the game’s best this season, if we use the standard of former Cy Young Award winners. Counting Hernandez twice, the Yankees are now 6-0 this season when they face the pitchers who have won the honor. While Felix has avoided getting tagged with the loss, the other four — Oakland’s Bartolo Colon, Toronto’s R.A. Dickey, Tampa Bay’s David Price and Detroit’s Justin Verlander — are 0-4.
Now, here’s the catch: The Yankees haven’t come close to hitting any of these guys hard. Their top run total versus this group? Three, which they tallied against Colon, Dickey, Price and Verlander.
In all, these five pitchers (in six starts) have put up a 3.10 ERA in 40 2/3 innings pitched. Keep that going through a season, and you’ll likely make the playoffs. The key, then, has been the starting pitchers the Yankees have thrown against this elite bunch. Phil Hughes (three games), CC Sabathia (two) and yesterday’s starter David Phelps have a 1.56 ERA in 40 1/3 innings pitched in these games. They have two wins and four no-decisions.
Phelps overcame a shaky first couple of innings as he corrected a mechanical flaw — “Stay back over my back leg a little longer,” he explained — and matched Hernandez by allowing one run in six innings to the unimposing Mariners lineup. David Robertson picked up the win thanks to the Yankees’ run in the ninth, and Mariano Rivera recorded his 23rd save in 24 tries.
“Regardless of who I’m pitching against, I’m going to go out and try to put up as many zeroes as I can,” Phelps said. “It just so happens that if you’re facing an ace, you’ve got to try and keep us in the game a little bit more. [Hernandez has] done it for so long and he’s done it so well.”
Hughes said, “You’re pitching against the opponent, not the other pitcher. Try to execute pitches against their lineup. That’s really about it.”
The Yankees’ weak offense deserves some credit. By making Hernandez throw 26 pitches in the first inning and 17 more in the second, they helped run him out after seven innings and 108 pitches. And they sure seem to have a knack for unexpected, big moments like Stewart’s hit.
Joe Girardi said he kept Stewart in the game, rather than use Lyle Overbay as a pinch-hitter, because he liked the matchup. Stewart is a low-ball hitter, and Medina throws a sinker. It also stands to reason Girardi preferred Rivera pitch to Stewart, rather than Austin Romine, in the ninth inning.
“That’s who we are,” Girardi said, when asked about his weak offense. “We’re a little bit different club than we’ve been in the past, but we’ve pitched really well and we’ve found ways to win. Sometimes it’s not how many hits you get, it’s when you get the hits. We’ve had some pretty good timely hitting.”
At the least likely times.
“I’m sure [coming in, they felt] pretty good about getting a split in the series with their top guy going,” Hughes said of the Mariners. “To get out of here winning three out of four, I think, is huge, especially against a guy that’s historically done really well against us.”
The Yankees are reshaping their history with this year’s team. We’ll see if this whole “underdog” thing works out, yet it has strong results so far. Just ask five very accomplished, very frustrated starting pitchers.
kdavidoff@nypost.com