Mariano who?
David Robertson earned a four-out save to preserve the Yankees’ 4-3 win over the Pirates in the first game of their doubleheader Sunday in The Bronx.
It was the Yankees’ fourth straight win, Robertson’s eighth save in as many chances and his second straight four-out save since taking over for the retired Mariano Rivera this season.
The Yankees looked as if they were ready to cruise to a win early on.
After Hiroki Kuroda surrendered a first-inning leadoff homer to Neil Walker, the Yankees stormed back in the bottom of the inning against Charlie Morton (0-6), scoring three times.
The first five batters reached base, with Brett Gardner drawing a walk, Derek Jeter bunting for a single and Jacoby Ellsbury getting hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Mark Teixeira followed with a two-run single to center and Brian McCann delivered an RBI single. Pittsburgh pitching coach Ray Searage went out to talk to Morton and it worked, as he struck out Alfonso Soriano and got Yangervis Solarte to ground sharply into an inning-ending double play.
Kuroda (3-3) settled down after the Walker homer to retire nine in a row before walking Andrew McCutchen with one out in the fourth. Pedro Alvarez reached on an infield single and after Kuroda fanned Starling Marte, Ike Davis walked on four pitches to load the bases. Kuroda finally got Gaby Sanchez on a grounder to short to end the 27-pitch inning.
While Kuroda didn’t give up any runs in the frame, it clearly took something out of him.
Tony Sanchez started the fifth with a home run to make it 4-2, followed by a double from Clint Barmes. Barmes moved to third on a Travis Snider groundout and scored on Walker’s liner to third that Kelly Johnson misplayed into a single.
Kuroda recovered to pitch a perfect sixth before the bullpen took over.
Matt Daley and Matt Thornton combined to retire the side in order in the seventh.
The eighth inning was not so simple.
McCutchen hit a liner to right that Alfonso Soriano dove for, but couldn’t catch. He got lucky when the ball bounced directly into his glove, holding McCutchen to a single.
After Warren got Pedro Alvarez to ground to second, Joe Girardi went to Robertson, who struck out Starling Marte looking on three pitches, then pitched a one-two-three ninth.