Jhony Brito sharp, Yankees hit 3 homers in second straight win over Mariners

Sure, you saw that coming.

Rookie righthander Jhony Brito, who pitched mostly without distinction in the majors earlier this season or with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, was called upon for spot-starting duty Wednesday against the Mariners.

The 25-year-old more than distinguished himself on this night.

Allowing few hard-hit balls over 5 2/3 scoreless innings, Brito, backed by homers from Jake Bauers, Billy McKinney and Anthony Volpe, helped the Yankees win their second straight over Seattle, 4-2, in front of 41,090 at the Stadium.

Brito, 4-3 with a 4.89 ERA in 11 games (10 starts) with the Yankees and 1-1 with a 7.08 ERA in four starts with Scranton, throttled the Mariners, allowing two hits and a walk. Removed after a two-out walk in the sixth and at 81 pitches, Brito, who allowed a combined 12 runs in his previous two starts in the minors, struck out three.

“Man,” Aaron Boone said afterward, “couldn’t ask for much more than that.”

Brito outpitched Mariners ace Luis Castillo, a Yankees target the last two trade deadlines whom Boone accurately called “one of the game’s best.”

Castillo, who came in 4-5 but with a 2.73 ERA, allowed three runs, four hits and four walks over five innings in which he needed 103 pitches. He struck out just three.

“Great opportunity to face a guy like that,” Brito said through his interpreter. “He’s one of the stars of this game. At the same time, I have to go out there and pitch.”

Brito, who retired 12 straight after allowing a leadoff single to Jose Caballero, felt good with pretty much all of his pitches, the fastball and slider in particular.  

“We talk about using your strength,” Brito said. “You have to establish the fastball and until you see an adjustment from the opposing team, you keep attacking with it. I combined that with the slider, which is a developing weapon. Establish your fastball and you go from there.”

There was a down note to the evening for the Yankees (41-33), who lost reserve outfielder Willie Calhoun to a left quad injury. Calhoun, who will go for an MRI Thursday and is all but certain to be put on the injured list, said the quad “grabbed and pulled on me” the last few steps running out a grounder in the eighth inning. Calhoun, a non-roster invitee in the spring who has been hitting the ball well, said he had a similar injury a few years ago that cost him 3-4 weeks.

“It is frustrating,” said Calhoun, who went 1-for-3 and is 15-for-51 (.294) with a .345 on-base percentage his last 14 starts. “I’m going to do everything I can to try to get back as fast as I can.”

Jimmy Cordero took over for Brito in the sixth and struck out one in 1 1/3 perfect innings. Wandy Peralta allowed a two-out homer to Dylan Moore in the eighth to make it 4-1 and Michael King replaced him. King got into trouble in the ninth, leaving with runners at the corners and one out, fortunate that Teoscar Hernandez just missed tying it on a hanging 0-and-2 slider, instead flying to deep center. Tommy Kahnle allowed a sacrifice fly to Jarred Kelenic that made it 4-2 but struck out Eugenio Suarez for his sixth career save, first this season.  

Volpe started the third with a walk and Bauers roped a full-count, 97-mph fastball to right-center for his sixth homer. Bauers, a standout with the bat for the better part of two weeks – one of the few doing so since Aaron Judge went to the IL – improved to 7 for his last 23 (.304). The homer made it 20 of his last 29 starts in which Bauers reached base and made it 13 of his last 18 hits going for extra bases. McKinney, who homered Tuesday, took Castillo deep in the fourth, his third homer making it 3-0.

Volpe, who came in hitting .191 with a .615 OPS, hit a solo shot in the seventh off lefty Gabe Speier, his 10th homer making it 4-0.

“It was good to see us really wear down an elite starter like that,” Boone said of Castillo. “And make him work as hard as he did and get him out of there with what was for the most part really quality at-bats up and down.”