DJ LeMahieu, Giancarlo Stanton homer as Yankees beat Royals

It is among the oldest sports sayings — at any level and any sport — and it goes like this: Never apologize for a win.

Especially when things aren’t going well.

And so, as unimpressive as their drawing-blood-from-a-stone one-run victory over  the awful Royals on Friday night and their 5-2 victory over Kansas City on Saturday afternoon were, the bottom line showed the only result that truly matters: two games, two much-needed wins.

Saturday’s came about because of another standout outing from Gerrit Cole, terrific work from a bullpen that has been rickety of late and the kind of big hit from DJ LeMahieu that has been missing for most of his season.

LeMahieu’s seventh-inning homer, a 402-foot opposite-field shot  off  Carlos Hernandez, gave the Yankees (52-47) a 3-2 lead. . Giancarlo Stanton provided a cushion with a 410-foot two-run homer to left-center on an 0-and-2 pitch from Dylan Coleman with two outs in the eighth.

“Just trying to simplify but also staying loose and aggressive,” said LeMahieu, who has been in pretty much a season-long slump but started making some tweaks in his approach before the All-Star break and has gone 13-for-41 (.317) in his last 11 games. “Some stuff I was working on right before the break, kind of took it into the break, and was kind of really excited to get back after the break and get after it. I feel like I’m on the right track.”

LeMahieu, 10-for-29 (.345) in eight games since the break, lined a 97-mph fastball from Hernandez  to right-center for the tiebreaking homer. He had been homerless in 24 games  since taking Max Scherzer deep on June 13.

“That’s classic DJ right there, smoking a ball to right-center like that,” Aaron Boone said. “Obviously a huge hit in the game, but it’s good to see him get some traction going.”

The Yankees, who have been mostly stagnant offensively since Aaron Judge last played in a game June 3, could use a hot stretch by a few of their veterans, a group that right at the top includes LeMahieu, Anthony Rizzo and Stanton. The latter had an RBI single in the first inning off Brady Singer, and his two-run shot in the eighth was his sixth home run in his last 10 games and 13th overall.

“There’s no question the last couple of weeks, he’s getting better swings off,” Boone said. “He’s getting there. We know what he’s capable of when he really locks it in. It’s good to see him, I feel like, moving in that direction over the last couple of weeks.”

Kahnle struck out two in the eighth. Holmes allowed a two-out single and a walk to bring the tying run to the plate in the ninth, but he struck out Drew Waters looking for his 13th save in 16 chances.

Cole, coming off an outing in Denver in which he struck out 11 but saw the bullpen implode in an 8-7 loss in 11 innings, allowed two runs and five hits in 6 1/3 innings, including a tying 334-home run down the rightfield line that tied it at 1-1 in the third and a two-out RBI single by Maikel Garcia in the fifth. He nearly pitched out of a first-and-third, none-out jam by striking out Waters and Kyle Isbel, but Garcia lined his first pitch up the middle to tie it at 2-2.

Cole, who in Boone’s words has been  “a constant” in the Yankees' up-and-down season, walked one and struck out 10, extending his franchise record for most double-digit strikeout games to 25 and lowering his ERA to 2.78.  Wandy Peralta replaced him with one out in the seventh and retired both batters.

“As a player, the team aspect of this is about taking care of your business and showing up to play every single day,” said Cole, whose team improved to 15-6 this season in games he has started. “No one else is going to do it for you, so your preparation has to be at a high level and you have to be really diligent in how you go about your business. So regardless of the situation with the roster or the record, that’s my job and I take it seriously.”