MLB

Shane Greene latest example of Yanks’ farm system stepping up

CLEVELAND — Grow your own and roll with it.

That recipe carried the Yankees to a 5-3 win over the Indians Monday night in front of 21,558 rain-soaked Progressive Field customers.

The Yankees’ minor league system has been criticized in recent years for not providing significant help at the big league level, as recently as a year ago when injuries crushed the varsity and the replacements from within the system didn’t impress.

When it comes to pitching that hasn’t been the case this season and Monday night the homegrown talent played a big part in the Yankees’ fourth win in five games.

Shane Greene, a 15th-round pick from Daytona State College, made his first big league start and gave the Yankees six solid innings in which he allowed two runs, four hits and was the winner. He kept the Indians hitless until Nick Swisher’s two-out, solo homer in the fifth.

With David Robertson, taken in the 17th round in 2006, having worked three of the previous four games Joe Girardi didn’t want to use the closer, so All-Star reliever Dellin Betances, an eighth-round pick in 2006, worked the ninth after entering in the eighth and posted his first major league save.

Brett Gardner, a third-round selection in 2005, went 3-for-5 and drove in a run.

“We have gotten a lot of help from the minor leagues and Shane did a really good job,’’ Girardi said.

The victory enabled the Yankees to stay 3 ½ games behind the AL East-leading Orioles who beat the Nationals.

The immediate question was whether Greene’s effort was good enough to earn another start. Girardi wasn’t committing.

“It will be a topic of discussion,’’ the manager said. “We will figure it out pretty quick.’’

By dropping newly acquired Brandon McCarthy into the rotation Wednesday, Girardi could use David Phelps, a 14th-round pick in 2008, on Thursday and Hiroki Kuroda on Friday. That would line Greene up for a start on Saturday and either bump Chase Whitley, a 15th-round pick in 2010, to the bullpen or Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

“That’s not up to me,’’ Greene said of deserving another start.

Working with a 5-0 lead after three innings helped and so did a mid-90s fastball that Greene threw for strikes. Fifty-six of Greene’s 88 pitches were strikes and nine of the 18 outs he recorded were on ground balls.

“It was a dream come true,’’ said Greene, who worked one-third of an inning against the Red Sox this year in relief. “I followed [Francisco Cervelli’s] lead and pounded the strike zone. I would rather give up a homer than a walk.’’

For the second straight game the Yankees chased a starting pitcher early. Sunday it was the Twins Ricky Nolasco.

Monday night it was Justin Masterson who gave up five runs and six hits in two-plus frames.

“I am sure it took a little pressure off [Greene] and he enjoyed it,’’ said Gardner, who singled in each of the first two innings and plated a run in the second.

When Yan Gomes homered off former Indian David Huff leading off the eighth and cut the Yankees lead to 5-3, Girardi went to Betances even though he wanted Huff to get through the eighth.

Betances pitched a scoreless eighth and then worked around a leadoff singled by Michael Brantley in the ninth.

“I was just trying to make pitches, especially because D-Rob, there was a good chance he wasn’t going to pitch,’’ Betances said.

There is no Mike Trout or Bryce Harper in the system. But the batch of home-grown hurlers that includes Adam Warren, a fourth-round pick in 2009, has been asked to deliver and it has.