Yankees drub Rangers behind CC Sabathia | Rapid reaction

CC Sabathia goes six scoreless innings, surrendering one hit, as the Yankees beat the Rangers, 7-2, at Yankee Stadium on Sunday.

NEW YORK — For most, Sundays are for recovery and relaxation. Sleep late, maybe throw on headphones and zone out through chores. But definitely take it easy.

The Yankees‘ 7-2 win over the Rangers was baseball’s equivalent of that.

Save for a couple errors, it was mostly a stress-free afternoon before 41,304 at Yankee Stadium for manager Aaron Boone’s club.

Giancarlo Stanton homered in the first inning, his 30th of the season, to put the Yankees up, 1-0. That held until a five-run fifth inning set the Yankees in cruise control.

They were able to breath easily, in big part, thanks to starting pitcher CC Sabathia, who threw six scoreless innings while striking out seven and working around a trio of walks.

It was his third outing of at least six innings and no runs of the season and he hasn’t allowed more than two runs in any of his last four starts.

Sabathia surrendered just one hit, a dribbler that went maybe a few feet in front of home plate that the hefty 38-year-old couldn’t field himself. He let just one ball out of the infield, a warning-track fly ball to the powerful Joey Gallo.

What it means

The Yankees won the four-game set with Texas, 3-1, with the Mets showing up for a rainout make up Monday before they continue their 11-game homestand. 

New York has won six of seven games since getting swept in four games in Boston.

They started the day 9 1/2 games back of the Red Sox in the American League East and 4 1/2 games ahead for first place for the Wild Card. 

Didi’s day

Gregorius’s two-run home run to right field and the crowd chanting his name all at-bat typically would be the highlight of anybody’s day. It was best part of the fifth-inning barrage for the Yankees, after all, and it was his 21st of the season.

Nope. He made one of the best defensive plays of a career filled with flashy glove work in the fifth.

With one out, lightning-fast Delino Deshilds Jr. hit a grounder in the hole to the left side. Gregorius ranged to his right and slid on his knees. Then in one motion, he backhanded it, transferred the ball to his right hand and let go a bullet to first base.

Gregorius beat Deshields, sprinting his hardest, by a step.

Gregorius also made several other smooth plays, including a scoop-and-throw on a slow roller ranging all the way beyond second base to end the seventh.

Migg-E

Miguel Andujar had an RBI an RBI force out in the fifth inning. He also had a pair of errors that appeared to affect him on the field after, one of them particularly ugly.

In the second inning, Anudjar backhanded Adrian Beltre’s grounder near the foul line. His throw — tough, because of its length – was wide of the bag, and would have been good enough for the out if it was on target.

Then, in the sixth, Elvis Andrus hit a ball hard and on the ground. It kept rising toward Andujar, who tried to backhand it. The in-between hop caught the rookie off guard. It bounced off his glove and into shallow left field. Andrus reached second base.

On the very next play, Andujar — who spent the at-bat pounding his glove and shaking his head — had plenty of time to throw out Jurickson Profar on his routine grounder. Andujar double pumped and threw it sidearm. First baseman Luke Voit had to bail him out with a scoop.

You should know

Sonny Gray gave up two runs in the seventh inning. While he gave up some soft singles, he also surrendered two hard-hit doubles. It was his second relief appearance since getting booted from the rotation — and it wasn’t nearly as good as his first try.

Gray exited to loud boos when Boone pulled him for Jonathan Holder in the eighth.

Next

Yankees righty Luis Severino (15-5, 3.11 ERA) vs. Mets righty Jacob deGrom (6-7, 1.77 ERA) at 7:05 p.m. Monday at Yankee Stadium. 

Brendan Kuty may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @BrendanKutyNJ. Find NJ.com Yankees on Facebook.