Happ-y day: Yankees drop Royals, win series

J.A. Happ’s first Yankees start goes well as he helps drop Royals at Yankee Stadium on Sunday.

NEW YORK — That was only the Happetizer

In his first Yankees start, J.A. Happ had little trouble, carrying his new club to a 6-3 win over the Royals at Yankee Stadium.

Happ provided six strong innings as the Yankees backed him with a steady stream of timely hitting and quality defense.

What it means

The win meant the Yankees grabbed the four-game series from Kansas City, 3-1. They won Thursday and fell in the first half of Saturday’s double header.

They started the day 5 1/2 games behind the Red Sox in the American League East.

The Yankees are 2-1 since losing Aaron Judge to a fractured wrist Thursday.

What’s coming

The Yankees are off Monday and the MLB trade deadline will come at 4 p.m. Tuesday — before they’re set to start a home series against the Orioles. The Yankees have been connected recently to Rays starting pitcher Chris Archer, though they’re reportedly not frontrunners for him.

How it Happened

The Yankees acquired Happ from the Blue Jays for infielder Brandon Drury and outfield prospect Billy McKinney on Thursday.

General manager Brian Cashman brought Happ in to provide stability and depth to a rotation desperately lacking both.

He did it while giving up just one earned run, three hits, a walk, a hit-by-pitch and two strikeouts.

Aaron Hicks’ two-run homer in the first inning was his 17th on the season and it put the Yankees ahead for good.

They were up by as much as 6-0 before Happ surrendered a solo shot to Salvador Perez with two outs in the fifth inning.

Aroldis Chapman nabbed the save.

In the fourth, Miguel Andujar followed with an RBI single up the middle to make it 3-0 Yankees. A two-run fourth was highlighted by a Gleyber Torres groundout that brought in a run and Greg Bird’s RBI infield single.

Torres tapped a grounder to second base. Whit Merrifield tried tagged out Aaron Hicks at second base before throwing to first to get Torres. Initially, Hicks was called out, and it was a double play. But the Yankees challenged and the replay showed Merrifield never tagged Hicks. Umpires reversed the call.

Bird’s infield single was special in that he’s maybe the Yankees’ slowest position player. He chopped the ball into the ground and, with the infield back and shifted, he had enough time to reach first and score Giancarlo Stanton.

You should know

The struggles of Chad Green and David Robertson continued. Each gave up solo homers after Happ came out. Robertson gave up a bomb for the second straight outing. Green didn’t look sharp in Saturday’s loss and he’s given up seven home runs on the season — three more than he surrendered when he was dominant last year.

Andujar finished 1-for-4 but pounded a couple balls into outs.

Aaron Hicks finished 3-for-3. Austin Romine doubled.

Gleyber Torres and Didi Gregorius were the only Yankees starter without hits.

NEXT

The Yankees are off Monday. On Tuesday, Yankees righty Masahiro Tanaka (8-2, 4.09 ERA) will face Orioles righty Yefrey Ramirez (1-3, 3.49 ERA) at 7:05 p.m. at Yankee Stadium.

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