MLB

Single-minded Yankees roll past Cardinals

ST. LOUIS — A laugher suddenly wasn’t so funny for manager Joe Girardi and the Yankees Wednesday night.

An early seven-run bulge was whittled to four and the Cardinals had a runner on second with two outs in the eighth.

Knowing a loss would have crushed his club, Girardi summoned David Robertson from the bullpen in a non-save situation and asked the closer for four outs.

After giving up an RBI single to Kolten Wong that cut the lead to three, Robertson fanned Matt Holliday to end the eighth. He allowed the first two runners to reach in the ninth as the anxiety in the Yankees’ dugout rose. But Robertson fanned the final three batters to seal a 7-4 victory that before a sold-out Busch Stadium crowd of 45,267.

“I feel pretty good physically,’’ said Robertson, who was used before the ninth for the fourth time this season. “I wasn’t getting more ground ball outs, quick outs.’’

The victory sent the Yankees into Thursday’s day of rest with a 5-4 road trip, but it was more difficult than it should have been.

Before the top of the seventh the Cardinals played a video tribute of the retiring Derek Jeter, who didn’t play, and then trained the camera on him in the dugout. The fans reacted with a standing ovation and Jeter came out of the dugout, doffed his cap and pointed toward the Cardinals’ first-base dugout.

“We were winning and I thought it was appropriate,’’ Jeter said of taking a curtain call.

When the Yankees led 7-0 after four innings, it appeared they would coast to a victory. But Hiroki Kuroda couldn’t get out of the sixth. In 5 ²/₃ innings he allowed three runs and nine hits.

“I ended up giving up a lot of hits but I got big outs,’’ said Kuroda, who is 4-3.
Brian McCann, who started at first base for the initial time as a professional player, had two of the Yankees’ 12 hits, 11 of which were singles.

“We swung the bats, top to bottom,’’ said McCann, who handled seven chances without incident at first.

Jacoby Ellsbury went 3-for-5, scored twice, drove in three runs and has seven hits in the last 17 at-bats.

“It’s a successful road trip, but you can always be better,’’ said Ellsbury, who drove in a run in the third and two in the fourth.

As for using Robertson in the eighth, something Girardi avoided doing early in the season and after he came off the disabled list in April, the manager said the off day factored into his decision.

“I thought with the day off and he didn’t pitch Tuesday, if I needed him for four outs, I could use him,’’ Girardi said.

Aware that he has been using Dellin Betances quite a bit recently, Girardi knew he had one batter in him and that was it. So Betances entered the game with runners at the corners in the sixth inning and retired Holliday on a loud out to left to end the frame.

Robertson took the blame for the 5-4 record not being better.

“We should be 6-3, I ended up blowing the game with the White Sox,’’ Robertson said.

As crushing as giving up a two-run homer to Adam Dunn was in Chicago had the Yankees let Wednesday night’s victory slip away it would have been worse.