Stanton, Sabathia Lead Yankees To Win Over Braves; Torres Placed On DL
NEW YORK (AP) — Giancarlo Stanton hit a three-run homer, CC Sabathia pitched six effective innings, and the New York Yankees beat the Atlanta Braves 6-2 on Wednesday.
Aaron Judge added his 24th homer of the season in the seventh inning. He's now homered in three of his past four games.
Rookie second baseman Gleyber Torres left the game in the top of the fifth inning because of tightness in his right hip and will be placed on the 10-day disabled list with a right hip strain.
Catcher Kyle Higashioka also homered for the Yankees, becoming the ninth player since 1920 whose first three hits were home runs. Colorado's Trevor Story homered for his first four big league hits on April 4-6, 2016.
Sabathia (6-3) worked out of a couple of jams for the Yankees, who have won six of their past eight after getting swept in three games at Tampa last weekend.
National League East-leading Atlanta loaded the bases with two outs in the first, but the 37-year-old struck out 20-year-old phenom Ronald Acuna Jr. on an 88 mph cutter.
The Braves have lost their past two games.
New York took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on Greg Bird's RBI single off Atlanta starter Julio Teheran (6-6), who lasted just five innings, allowing five hits and five runs. He walked four and struck out 10.
The Yankees got to Teheran again in the third.
With a runner on first and two outs, Aaron Hicks walked. Stanton then fell behind 0-2 before hitting a line drive to the right field bleachers for his 21st homer of the season to make it 4-0.
After retiring the first two batters in the fourth, Teheran fell behind 2-0 against Higashioka before the 30-year-old rookie connected to the left field stands, extending the lead to 5-0.
The Braves cut the deficit to 5-1 on an RBI grounder from Danny Santana with one out in the fifth. Johan Camargo hit his ninth home run of the season with two outs in the sixth that made it 5-2. But Sabathia limited the damage by retiring Dansby Swanson on a grounder to second with a runner aboard.
Atlanta failed to take advantage in the seventh inning against reliever Chad Green when its first two batters reached on a pair of singles. Green then got three fly outs to end the threat.
PUT ME IN COACH
With New York set to play 11 games in 10 days, beginning Friday at Toronto, Yankees manager Aaron Boone said he wanted to be "greedy" with Thursday being their only day off, and held Austin Romine out of the starting lineup for the fourth consecutive day. Higashioka started for the fourth straight time behind the plate.
The Yankees have been short-handed at catcher since Romine left the game on June 29 against Boston in the seventh inning because of a tight left hamstring. Gary Sanchez has been on the 10-day disabled list since June 25 because of a strained right groin.
GET OUT AND VOTE
New York has one of the best records in baseball but it only has one player, Aaron Judge, among the eight leading vote getters on the American League squad for the All-Star Game that will be played July 17 at Washington. The starters for the Midsummer Classic will be revealed on Sunday.
Boone believes that Judge, the 2017 Home Run Derby champion, will have company to make the trip to the nation's capital.
"I mean you look around the league — and I haven't looked at the voting lately — but we were actually talking about guys that might make off our team or guys that are certainly on that conversation and we have a number of those players," Boone said. "Hopefully we'll be well represented. We certainly have deserving guys."
TRAINER'S ROOM
Braves: 1B Freddie Freeman, who was hit by a pitch in the third inning, left the game after the fourth because of a contusion in his right upper arm.
WELCOME BACK
LHP Luiz Gohara, the No. 3 prospect in the Atlanta organization, arrived about 90 minutes before the first pitch after he was called up from Triple-A Gwinnett for the second time this season. RHP Evan Phillips, who threw 2 1/3 innings Tuesday night, was sent down to Triple-A.
UP NEXT
Braves: Max Fried (1-2, 2.55 ERA) starts the opener of a four-game series at NL Central-leading Milwaukee on Thursday. Fried struck out 11 over 6 2/3 scoreless innings in his previous start against St. Louis.
Yankees: Sonny Gray (5-6, 5.44) gets the nod for the first of three games at Toronto as New York heads out on an 11-game, three city trip. Gray has lost his past two starts, giving up 10 runs and 13 hits in nine innings.
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