The Yankees bullpen played follow the leader Friday — and did it to perfection.
“We definitely feed off each other. We try to go out there and just match each other. Been doing it all year,” said Dellin Betances, part of the Yankees’ three-man relay relief team that combined for four scoreless innings in the 4-3 victory over the White Sox at Yankee Stadium.
“No matter what happens we believe in each other and think we can get the job done,” Betances said.
They certainly did just that, limiting the White Sox to two hits — a pair of singles, with one erased in a double play — and no walks while striking out six.
“We did a good job. Today was one of our better days. We made a lot of quality pitches and got a lot of big outs,” said David Robertson who worked a perfect ninth and got the victory.
First up was Shawn Kelley who pitched 1¹/₃ innings in relief of Shane Greene. Kelley gave way to Betances, who did his thing for 1²/₃ innings, inducing a big Adam Dunn double play (after falling down 3-0 in the count) following a single by the first batter he saw, Jose Abreu.
And then Robertson handled the ninth, getting two strikeouts — one of them the 500th of his career. So maybe it wasn’t exactly Tinkers-to-Evers-to-Chance but Kelley-to-Betances-to-Robertson did the job efficiently and successfully.
“It was great,” Kelley said of the relief effort. “We got down (3-0), our hitters battled back and we were able to come in and put up some zeroes so it was a big team win.”
Even though he was the first out of the bullpen, Kelley seconded the “match or better the guy before you” philosophy.
“It’s important. We’re always itching to get in and pick up the guy and especially tonight, Dellin and I had to go more than an inning each,” Kelley said. “For me, it was to come in help pick the starter up and then turn it over to Dellin. … That’s what we’ve done 99 percent of the time this year, minus a few hiccups.”
And then Robertson breezed through his assignment, becoming the fastest Yankee ever to record 500 strikeouts, according to Elias Sports Bureau. His No. 500 came in 376 ²/₃ innings pitched, beating David Cone, who needed 486 ¹/₃ innings. So how does it feel?
“Good, I guess,” Robertson said. “I don’t think about strikeouts as far as numbers-wise. I think of strikeouts in situations. But to get to 500 as quickly, it’s great to be the fastest Yankee, but I’d rather keep winning ball games.”