KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Yankees have had to mix and match and push and stretch their pitchers to get through this stretch of 17 straight games, which conclude Thursday night with the “Field of Dreams” game against the White Sox in Iowa. Their bullpen has done some heavy lifting with the Bombers missing three starters and their closer.
Wednesday, the bullpen was solid again and gave the Yankees a 5-2 win over the Royals at Kauffman Stadium.
Lucas Luetge made his first career “start” and combined with Albert Abreu, Joely Rodriguez, Chad Green, Jonathan Loaisiga and Zack Britton to hold off the Royals and the Yankees (63-51) completed the ninth of their last 10 series. The Bombers are a season-high tying 12 games above .500 heading into the series with the White Sox.
Luetge allowed one run on two hits and struck out one batter over two innings. Abreu was charged with one run on four hits and he struck out four. Rodriguez (0.2), Green (2.0), Loaisiga (1.0) and Britton (1.0) each had a scoreless appearance.
Luetge’s first start came after 152 career appearances in the big leagues. He was the 14th different pitcher the Yankees started this season, matching the most they have used in the last 32 years. That ties the 14 used in 2007 and is two shy of the 16 they used in 1989. Only the Mariners and Blue Jays have used more starting pitchers (15).
Since April 20, Luetge has gone 4-2 with a 2.05 ERA, allowing 10 earned runs in 44 innings over 27 appearances out of the bullpen. He has struck out 49 and walked nine.
The Bombers gave him a comfortable margin to work with by jumping on Royals right-hander Brady Singer early. Luke Voit smacked a bases-loaded line drive into left field to bring in two runs and Rougned Odor singled in a third.
The Yankees added on two more in the fourth when Tyler Wade led off with a double and scored on DJ LeMahieu’s single. The second baseman then scored on Aaron Judge’s single.
The Yankees are hoping they can get their rotation back on track beginning next week. They expect Gerrit Cole and Jordan Montgomery back from the COVID-19 injury list early in the week. After they return and throw a bullpen, the Yankees will gauge when they can be inserted back in for some starts. Later in the week, they could get Luis Severino, who has been rehabbing since his March 2020 Tommy John surgery, back in some capacity. Domingo German, who is on the IL with shoulder inflammation, is beginning to throw and could be back quickly, the Yankees think.
Further down the line, the Bombers are hoping Corey Kluber, who is scheduled to throw in a minor league game on Thursday, back in the rotation as well.
“The guys obviously, that we’re missing right now are large pieces. And you can start to dream a little bit on getting really impactful players back for us and hopefully to fortify us and set us up for the stretch run,” Aaron Boone said. “Hopefully those guys continue to progress in our part of the mix in short order here.”
