If the Yankees are going to get one of the two AL wild-card spots, they’ll need to hold their own against the Red Sox and Blue Jays starting later this week.
For now, though, Aaron Boone said his team’s focus is simple: “Take care of business tonight.”
It’s something the Yankees haven’t done enough against some of their recent bad opponents, but they were able to hold on against the Rangers, 4-3, on Monday night in front of an April-like crowd of 22,160 in The Bronx.
And since Toronto lost to Tampa Bay, the Yankees trail the Blue Jays by half a game for the final playoff slot.
“We feel great,’’ Aaron Judge said. “We’ve got games against Boston, Tampa, Toronto the next couple weeks. I like where we’re at. I wish we were in a different spot, but it’s all in our hands. If we do what we need to do, we’re gonna be where we want to be in October. There’s no other way to put it.”
But they were mostly unaffected by the news of Toronto’s loss.
“I think we just have to take care of what’s going on here,’’ Chad Green said. “Worrying about what other teams are doing is pretty taxing. … Play well and the results will take care of themselves.”
After opening up an early four-run lead and seemingly poised for a lopsided victory over a Rangers team that had lost four of five, the Yankees instead had to once again hold on for their lives.
They didn’t score after the third inning and needed four relievers to keep Texas scoreless over the final 4 ²/₃ innings.
Nestor Cortes Jr. was yanked with one out in the fifth, needing 92 pitches to get that far, and Green, Clay Holmes, Joely Rodriguez and Aroldis Chapman finished the job.
Cortes started strong.
He allowed back-to-back singles to lead off the game and a wild pitch that Gary Sanchez failed to block put runners on second and third with no one out.
But Cortes responded by striking out the next three to get out of the 23-pitch inning unscathed. He went on to retire 11 in a row following the opening singles.
Sanchez homered on a 3-1 pitch with two outs in the second to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead.
DJ LeMahieu walked with one out in the bottom of the third and Anthony Rizzo singled to left after two near-miss homers that hooked foul.
Judge’s single to center scored LeMahieu and a wild throw home by Leodys Taveras allowed Rizzo to get to third and Judge to second.
A sacrifice fly from Giancarlo Stanton and a Gleyber Torres RBI single made it 4-0.
The Yankees failed to add to their lead in the fourth after LeMahieu and Rizzo walked with one out and A.J. Alexy was replaced by Jharel Cotton.
Cortes faltered in the fifth inning, as Charlie Culberson led off with a homer off the left-field foul pole, Taveras followed with a ground-rule double and scored on Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s double down the right-field line to cut the Yankees’ lead to 4-2.
Green came in and got Andy Ibanez to fly to center for the second out, but a wild pitch with Adolis Garcia at the plate allowed Kiner-Falefa to get to third and he scored on Garcia’s sacrifice fly and the Yankees led by just a run.
Green, who has been in a bad stretch, tossed a scoreless sixth after finishing the fifth. Holmes pitched a scoreless seventh, but gave up a leadoff bloop hit to Ibanez in the eighth.
With runners on first and second and two out, Rodriguez got Nick Solak on a check-swing third strike, generously called by home plate umpire Dan Iassogna, for the final out before Chapman picked up the save.
“You’ve got to be able to flush [bad games],” Boone said about his team’s ability to recover from defeats. “You play so many games and the season is such a grind. In your own way, you’ve got to be able to put today behind you and get ready for the next game.”
