NEW YORK _ The Yankees' bullpen nearly wasted CC Sabathia's dominating performance and milestone home runs by Gleyber Torres, Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez on Friday night.
Except the Indians' pitching was worse.
Miguel Andujar's RBI single off Cody Allen with two outs in the ninth inning gave the Yankees a walk-off 7-6 victory _ their fourth straight win and 13th in their last 14 games _ before a sellout crowd of 46,869 at Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees, who led 5-0 before Chasen Shreve and David Robertson allowed the Indians to tie it with a pair of home runs in the eighth, took a 6-5 lead in the bottom of the eighth as Alexi Ogando walked Judge on a 3-and-2 pitch with the bases loaded and two outs.
But with two outs, runners on second and third and an 0-and-2 count on Jason Kipnis in the ninth, Aroldis Chapman fired a 101.7-mph fastball off the mask of plate umpire Tim Timmons _ Gary Sanchez didn't even get a glove on it _ for a wild pitch that tied it at 6-6. It was his second wild pitch of the inning and came moments after he had struck out Francisco Lindor for the second out with runners on second and third.
But Giancarlo Stanton led off the bottom of the ninth with a double to right-center off Ogando and reached third on Aaron Hicks' groundout to first. With two outs, Neil Walker battled back from an 0-and-2 count to draw a walk and Andujar flared the winning single to right on a 1-and-2 pitch.
Sabathia allowed three hits in six scoreless innings, walking none, striking out seven and throwing 61 of his 92 pitches for strikes. Most of his pitches were in the 80s, some dipping into the 70s. He lowered his ERA to 1.39 and is undefeated in his last 14 regular-season starts dating to Aug. 19, 2017.
"He's in such a great place throwing the ball," said Yankees manager Aaron Boone, the 37-year-old Sabathia's teammate on the Indians from 2005-06. "It's fun to watch him go out there with what he has and really understand how to get guys out and generate the kind of weak contact that he seems to do all the time. It's fun to watch him, at this point of his career, have a lot of success."
