David Robertson pointed to the golf ball-sized bump on his left shin and smiled.
“It hurts right now, but I’ll take it,” the closer said after the Yankees snapped a four-game losing streak with a 2-1 win over the A’s on Thursday.
Without that welt, Alberto Callaspo’s hot shot up the middle likely would have gone through and there’s little doubt pinch-runner Craig Gentry would have raced home from second to tie the game.
Instead, the ball bounced almost right to Mark Teixeira, who pounced on it and flipped to Robertson, who alertly covered first on the play, keeping Gentry at third.
Robertson then got Derek Norris looking to end the game for his 13th save.
“I was the happiest guy in the whole stadium that the ball hit me,” said Robertson, who saw the pen struggle throughout the losing streak, but managed to toss three scoreless innings in the victory.
“I didn’t have any doubt these guys would bounce back,” Joe Girardi said of the bullpen’s recent woes. “But you don’t want to let another one get away. And it’s not like we’re giving them a huge margin of error.”
That was true again Thursday.
Robertson had blown two of his previous five save chances and Warren was coming off a rough outing, as well.
Warren gave up consecutive singles to open the eighth, but recovered to strike out Josh Donaldson before Ichiro Suzuki, who pinch ran for Alfonso Soriano in the seventh, made a sliding catch of Brandon Moss’ liner for the second out. Warren then struck out the dangerous Yoenis Cespedes with a high fastball to end the inning.
Tanaka improved to 9-1 and after surrendering a homer to the second hitter of the game, John Jaso, shut down Oakland. He retired the next 10, but needed 104 pitches to get through six innings.
Once again, though, the offense continued to sputter, even with the return of Carlos Beltran from the disabled list.
While it might not have been perfect, the win did keep the Yankees (30-29) from falling under .500 for the first time since April 11, when they were 5-6.
“There are going to be stretches in the season where every game is really tight,” Robertson said. “It’s taxing on anybody, but that’s what we’re here for.”
Brett Gardner’s leadoff homer in the bottom of the third provided the margin of victory.
The Yankees had tied the game with an unearned run in the second when Soriano snapped a 16 at-bat hitless streak with an RBI single that drove in Brian McCann, who had singled and went to second when the ball got past Brandon Moss in left.
Jacoby Ellsbury’s line drive to right in the first was initially ruled a two-run homer, but after an Oakland challenge, replays showed it hit the top of the wall and bounced back. Teixeira followed by lining out to third and Beltran struck out to end the inning.
The Yankees hardly threatened after Gardner’s homer, but it didn’t come back to bite them this time thanks to the pen.
“We were just having a slump,” Robertson said. “We got the lead a couple of times and couldn’t hold it. It happens in baseball. We held it down today.”
And Robertson has the bruise to prove it.