Yankees beat Cardinals as Austin Wells hits pair of two-out, two-run homers to back Marcus Stroman

Even as his season continued to spiral — with few signs of an ending — Marcus Stroman expressed his usual confidence.

“I feel like I figured some things out,” he said on Aug. 8 after the Yankees pushed a scheduled start back.

It appears as if he did just that.

Turning in his fourth straight strong start, Stroman, backed by a pair of two-out, two-run homers by Austin Wells and an RBI double by Juan Soto, threw seven innings in the Yankees’ 6-3 victory over the Cardinals in front of 47,103 at the Stadium.

“I think Wellsy was great,” Stroman said of the rookie catcher, who continues to earn plaudits from his pitchers as well as provide important protection for Aaron Judge. “We just had a good mix of pitches, just keeping them off-balance. Felt like I used all my weapons today. Wellsy had a great game plan back there, and whatever he was throwing down, I was just trying to execute.”

Stroman, 0-3 with a 7.56 ERA in a six-start stretch from late June into early August, allowed two runs, nine hits and zero walks in improving to 10-6 with a 3.81 ERA. The former Patchogue-Medford star has allowed six runs in 23 innings in his last four starts. It was his longest outing since he lasted 7 1⁄3 innings May 31 at San Francisco.

“I feel like he’s just behind all of his pitches, honestly,” Wells said. “Feels like he’s getting to better spots than he was and it’s working out really well for him.”

Even the two runs off Stroman on Friday could have been avoided. They followed a dropped foul pop-up by Jazz Chisholm Jr., who nearly made an outstanding catch as he hit the netting for what could have been the third out in the third inning. Instead, Brendan Donovan and Paul Goldschmidt followed with two-out RBI singles.

Nolan Arenado’s two-out homer off Jake Cousins made it 4-3 in the eighth and Aaron Boone, who a little more than a week ago left open the possibility of others getting chances to close with Clay Holmes leading the majors with 10 blown saves, brought in Tommy Kahnle. The righthander, who has a 1.56 ERA and has not allowed an earned run in his last 18 games (16 1⁄3 innings), got Donovan to ground to second (Gleyber Torres made a nice sliding stop on the grass).

Wells’ second homer of the game and 12th of the season made it 6-3 in the bottom of the eighth. He is 28-for-81 (.346) with five homers, 21 RBIs, nine walks and nine runs in 20 games as the starting cleanup hitter.

“Two big swings,” Boone said. “He continues to be a real presence in the middle of our order.”

Boone went with Holmes in the ninth. Goldschmidt reached on an error by Anthony Volpe but was quickly erased when Volpe turned a 6-3 double play off a grounder by Lars Nootbar. Jordan Walker lined to left and Holmes earned his 29th save.

The AL East-leading Yankees (79-56), who have gone 19-11 since their 10-23 stretch, remained 1 1⁄2 games ahead of the Orioles.

The Cardinals (67-68), barely alive in the NL wild-card race, outhit the Yankees 10-6.

The Yankees took a 1-0 lead when Giancarlo Stanton led off the bottom of the second with a double and scored on Volpe’s sacrifice fly.

In the bottom of the third, Soto’s RBI double tied it at 2-2 and Wells’ two-run shot made it 4-2.

Alex Burleson roped one into the rightfield corner with one out in the fifth but was cut down trying for second on a strong throw by Soto (and a good tag by Volpe, who played a role in Burleson losing touch with the bag on his slide).

Chants of “Re-sign Soto!” emanated from the fans in right, which Soto acknowledged.

“I never expect that,” Soto, who has spent the season interacting with Stadium fans, said with a smile of the chants. “They’re getting loud. It’s fun to see those fans getting loud and going crazy. One of their players even told me that this place is really loud, and it’s only regular-season games.”