NEW YORK _ J.A. Happ may be coming off a nasty case of hand-foot-and-mouth disease, but his arm seems just fine.
Happ _ who made only one start in pinstripes before contracting the virus that felled both him and Noah Syndergaard _ made fairly easy work of the Rangers in six innings Thursday, showing a glimpse of the stability the Yankees were looking for when they traded for him before the July 31 deadline.
And the rest of the team? Well, they did what the Yankees do: hitting five homers against a hapless Ariel Jurado in a 7-3 win at Yankee Stadium for their fourth win in a row. Aaron Hicks, Miguel Andujar, Neil Walker and Giancarlo Stanton all went yard against the lefty, who was pulled after five innings and 73 pitches. Walker _ who hit his first homer batting right, did it from the other side of the plate in the sixth, off reliever Matt Moore _ his sixth career multi-home run game.
Perhaps just as importantly, they've seemed to fully exorcise the lingering bad feelings from that five-game losing streak, including four brutal losses to the Red Sox. They followed that series up with a sweep of the White Sox.
"Coming off a tough (Red Sox) series like that and losing in the way we did on Sunday (giving up four runs in the ninth and tenth innings), for the guys to bounce back ... was big, especially right now where it's a little hard for us," Aaron Boone said before the game. "We're banged up. We just need to keep pushing forward."
Happ's return though, was one step closer for a team that's also playing without Aaron Judge (wrist) and Gary Sanchez (groin). He no-hit the Rangers for the first 3 2/3 innings, and truly blinked only once _ on his third time around the order. He allowed four hits over six innings, giving up three runs with a walk and nine strikeouts over 94 pitches.
Meanwhile, the lineup more than made up for the power hitting vacuum left by Judge's and Sanchez's absences.
Aaron Hicks kicked it off in the first inning. After Didi Gregorius walked, Hicks _ who's already far eclipsed his career high for home runs _ homered again, a long shot to the right field bleachers off Jurado's 92 mph fastball to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead. Hicks, whose previous career high was 15 homers, now has 20 for the year.
"He's just shown to be a really good player and taken another step off the season he had last year," Boone said of Hicks. "I think even lately, he's been hitting into some tough luck too, on that road trip where he's having quality at bat after quality at bat. The switch-hitting element is kind of what I like too which, especially with a couple guys down, you can still kind of build your lineup and separate out lefties and righties. ... It's more just he helps you out strategically being a good player and being able to hit from both sides."
Happ didn't make a mistake until the fourth, when a fastball down the middle of the plate found Jurickson Profar, who blasted it into the visitors' bullpen to cut the Yankee lead to 2-1. They got that run back, with interest in the bottom of the inning, though. With one out, Jurado walked Greg Bird and Andujar homered to left to make it 4-1. Two pitches later, Walker did the same, with a solo shot to right, his fifth of the year.
The Rangers did manage to touch up Happ a bit in the top of the fifth, when he let the first two batters reach on a walk and a single. Carlos Tocci's sacrificed both over to scoring position and Shin-Soo Choo (who, up until that point, had been hit twice) took his vengeance _ lacing a double to center to drive in both runs to make it 5-3. Stanton, though, hit a solo homer in the fifth, and Walker made it 7-3 in the sixth.
