NEW YORK _ Aaron Boone has preached patience all season as Giancarlo Stanton pulled out of the gate slow, all the while predicting big things.
"He's going to have that stretch and, I think it will be a good stretch, where it's a month of him carrying us, or whatever it may be," Boone said late Sunday morning.
It is too small of a sample size to say that time has arrived, but this much was true Sunday afternoon: Stanton carried the offense in a 6-2 victory over the A's on a chilly Mother's Day at the Stadium, driving in three runs as the Yankees made it 19 wins in their last 22 games.
Stanton went 4-for-4, including his 10th homer of the season, making him 13 for his last 35.
And, regardless of the at-times mild hysteria accompanying his start, there's this: at the end of action May 13 a year ago, a season when he won the NL MVP with the Marlins, Stanton was hitting .259 with 11 homers and 26 RBIs. Currently he's hitting .252 with 10 homers and 26 RBIs.
The offense otherwise had a mostly quiet day but with Luis Severino on the mound, it didn't much matter. The 24-year-old ace didn't have his best stuff _ at least, not the kind of stuff that allowed the right-hander to strike out a combined 21 hitters over his previous two starts _ but that's how high the bar has been set for Severino (6-1).
He nonetheless battled through six innings, allowing one run, five hits and a walk. Severino, who struck out seven, lowered his ERA to 2.14 from 2.21.
The Yankees (28-12), who improved to an AL-best 21-3 with scoring first, completed a 7-2 homestand and, after an off day Monday, start a three-city, eight-game trip Tuesday night in Washington D.C.
Severino didn't take the mound until 3.50 p.m., the scheduled start delayed 2 hours, 45 minutes because of rain.
After Severino walked a batter but still pitched a scoreless top of the first, the Yankees essentially put it away in the bottom half against lefty Brett Anderson, who came in 0-5 with a 6.81 ERA in seven career starts vs. the Yankees.
Brett Gardner beat out an infield chopper for a single and Aaron Judge improved to 11-for-31 on this homestand by taking a 1-and-0 fastball down the right-field line for a double. Didi Gregorius, who snapped a 0-for-30 skid Saturday, walked to load the bases for Stanton. The designated hitter got ahead 2-and-0 before rocketing one, 117 mph off the bat, back up the middle, the two-run single making it 2-0. Gary Sanchez grounded into a 6-4-3 double play but Aaron Hicks, 4-for-27 on the homestand coming in, lined a full-count pitch whistling past Anderson's head, the RBI single making it 3-0 (Hicks added an RBI on a fielder's choice in the seventh that made it 5-1 and Judge's RBI single in the eighth made it 6-1).
The A's (19-21), who stranded two in the fourth, put two more on in the fifth but this time got on the board.
Jonathan Lucroy led off with a single and Marcus Semien singled with one out. Matt Joyce took a 98-mph fastball for strike three but Jed Lowrie lined a single to right. Judge came up throwing and had a shot at Lucroy but Sanchez couldn't pick clean the throw home, making it 3-1. Khris Davis followed and just missed sending a 98-mph fastball out, instead flying to the track in center to end the inning.
Stanton pushed the lead back to three with two outs in the bottom half, rocking a 2-and-1 fastball to right-center, his third homer of the homestand making it 4-1.
Mark Canha's homer off Chasen Shreve in the ninth made it 6-2.
