BALTIMORE — The miracle run will require multiple contributors, each surprising us with his performance and then passing on the baton to the next guy. Think Aaron Small to Al Leiter to Shawn Chacon in 2005.
The miracle run is far, far away from the finish line here in 2014. It’s barely out of the gate. But it starts with a guy like Shane Greene.
Tally two major-league starts and two major-league wins for the rookie Greene, who led the Yankees to a desperately needed, 3-0 blanking of the Orioles Saturday at Camden Yards. By halting a two-game losing streak and climbing back over .500, the Yankees (47-46) pulled within four games of the penthouse-occupying Orioles (51-42) in the American League East.
“Any time you go through injuries, it gives other guys opportunities,” said Derek Jeter, who delivered a huge RBI single in the seventh inning. “If you get an opportunity, you have to make the most of it. He’s done that.”
“He’s earning starts, is what he’s doing,” manager Joe Girardi said.
Greene is hardly a blue-chipper — the Yankees selected him in the 15th round of the 2009 amateur draft out of Daytona State College, for whom he never even pitched — yet for the moment, the Yankees will accept him as their young stud. The 25-year-old tossed 7¹/₃ shutout innings against the dangerous Orioles, striking out nine while walking two and allowing just four hits, giving him his second straight quality start in two attempts. He defeated the Indians in Cleveland on July 7, 5-3, and he now owns the last two wins by Yankees starting pitchers as well as a 1.32 ERA.
Cool — perhaps even oblivious — in the face of this team’s immense pressure, Greene held the Orioles hitless in their four at-bats with runners in scoring position. Upon departing with one out in the eighth inning, he received a standing ovation from the sizeable Yankees contingent in attendance here.
“I try not to think too much,” he said afterward. “I try to keep everything simple. Just go out there and make one pitch at a time.”
Fittingly, in this Yankees starting rotation, Greene took the spot of fellow rookie Chase Whitley, who got his shot when CC Sabathia went down and subsequently pitched stunningly well upon his arrival — only to see his star rapidly decline once opposing offenses appeared to solve him.
It bodes poorly for the Yankees that Whitley finds himself back in the team’s rotation Sunday night to replace the injured Masahiro Tanaka, who has joined his fellow Opening Day starters Sabathia, Ivan Nova and Michael Pineda on the disabled list. Brian Cashman continues to search for help on the trade market.
Can Greene last longer at this than Whitley? Well, for starters, Greene is a long-time starter, whereas Whitley worked as a reliever for the bulk of his minor-league career. Greene offers a good fastball in the low-to-mid 90s and a nasty slider that routinely stumped Baltimore hitters, as well as an effective cutter.
“The plan was so good today,” catcher Francisco Cervelli said. “Sliders any time.”
More to the point, the Yankees must find much more pitching help even if Greene goes out and replicates what Tanaka provided in his first 16 starts. Newcomer Brandon McCarthy won’t be much better than league average even if he can leverage his encouraging peripheral statistics into actual game results; Hiroki Kuroda has regressed into a back-of-the-rotation starter; and David Phelps routinely impresses as a swingman promoted above his natural ceiling.
And we haven’t even mentioned the offense yet. That 2005 surge — those Yankees, with Girardi as Joe Torre’s bench coach, ended the regular season on a 56-28 rampage — resulted significantly from a lineup that boasted of AL Most Valuable Player Alex Rodriguez; a back-from-the-dead Jason Giambi; a still surging Jeter, Hideki Matsui and Gary Sheffield; and rookie Robinson Cano.
This 2014 Yankees lineup coughed and wheezed its way to three runs on Saturday, getting two runners thrown out at home in a desperate attempt to capitalize on its few opportunities. If not for Jeter’s two-out, RBI single in the seventh, which scored Kelly Johnson from second base and set up Jacoby Ellsbury’s RBI double for a second insurance run, Greene and his relievers might have been working with a slight, 1-0 edge all the way through.
Greene has the right idea for these Yankees: One pitch at a time. One batter, one inning, one game at a time.
One miracle at a time. And now we curiously await Greene’s next start.