Yanks 'hot at the right time' in comeback win

NEW YORK -- Gio Urshela’s bat shattered on a second-inning double-play ball, a painful splinter landing in the infielder’s left eye. He jogged back on the field after a brief delay -- and that was a good thing for the Yankees, because he delivered good wood when they needed it most.

Urshela barreled a fastball to send a go-ahead, eighth-inning homer into Monument Park, DJ LeMahieu added a key two-run single and Aroldis Chapman locked down the save with the hardest fastball thrown in the Majors this season as the Bombers rallied for a 7-5 victory over the Athletics on Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.

“That was a really exciting game,” Urshela said. “We were fighting all day long. We were losing and then we came back. It doesn’t matter if we’re winning or losing; we always stay positive, doing the right things. It’s going to help us a lot, and today we showed that.”

The Yankees halted Oakland’s seven-game winning streak and have won four of their past five contests. Urshela’s shot off Jesús Luzardo landed on the netting that covers Monument Park, five innings after Yankees manager Aaron Boone considered removing Urshela from the game.

Urshela was momentarily blinded by the bat shard, staggering as he ran to first base, but he continued playing after his eye was flushed.

“It was a scary moment initially, but he was OK,” Boone said. “Gio’s always been a guy that, in the biggest spots, you love him up there. You love the ball hit to him. I think he’s a really good player that’s confident in his ability. He always surprises you with how good his power is, especially to straightaway center field.”

Gary Sánchez’s fifth home run in his past 10 games halved the Yanks’ early deficit, setting the stage for two of the biggest Bombers to deliver clutch seventh-inning knocks; Boone described them as “winning at-bats.”

New York was 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position before Aaron Judge drilled a run-scoring RBI single into center field, bringing the Yanks within one run. After Sánchez walked, Giancarlo Stanton greeted Yusmeiro Petit with an opposite-field single that sailed past first baseman Matt Olson, tying the game.

“I think there’s a lot of guys playing with a chip on their shoulder,” said Clint Frazier, who doubled twice and scored two runs in the win. “I think we prevail whenever we have a little bit of pressure on us. It has not been super easy, and right now things are going good.”

Fired up
LeMahieu’s two-run single off Sergio Romo provided breathing room for closer Aroldis Chapman, who lost Mark Canha to a walk that preceded Boone’s ejection, the manager having forcefully voiced his displeasure with home-plate umpire Sean Barber’s strike zone.

“He told me the last one was low, and I didn’t think it was,” Boone said.

Ramón Laureano’s RBI single brought the potential go-ahead run to the plate, but Chapman prevailed in a power vs. power showdown against Matt Chapman, blowing a 103.4 mph heater past the slugger for the final out.

“We’re getting hot at the right time,” Frazier said. “We’re a really good team, and we’ve got to perform that way.”

Keeping it close
Nestor Cortes Jr. was the unsung hero out of the Yanks’ bullpen, and the left-hander was honored by his teammates with the clubhouse “championship belt” -- indicative of the game’s most valuable contributor -- after providing three scoreless one-hit innings.

“You get an out at a time, a pitch at a time,” Cortes said. “You can’t try and get all three outs at once. I was just trying to limit damage, pitch by pitch.”

Cortes worked in relief of Domingo Germán, who permitted solo homers to Tony Kemp and Chapman through the first four frames before losing command of his fastball in the fifth. Germán has allowed a team-leading 14 homers across his 13 starts.

Two singles and a walk loaded the bases for Olson, the American League’s RBI leader this month (19 RBIs in 16 June games). Olson cashed a two-run single that completed the scoring off Germán, who was charged with four runs and seven hits over four-plus innings. Germán walked two and struck out six.

“We come here every day trying to do the best we can,” Urshela said. “I know the last couple of weeks, we’ve been losing a couple of games, but we’re always trying to stay positive every single game. Today we showed that.”