Amed Rosario plays hero as Yankees pull off comeback over A’s

With Ryan McMahon struggling and a neutral right-hander in Aaron Civale pitching for the Athletics on Tuesday, Aaron Boone decided to start the righty-swinging Amed Rosario at third base.

“He’s just a good hitter,” the manager stressed when asked about the veteran before the game.

Those words proved prescient, as Rosario clubbed two home runs in a 5-3, comeback win. The second was a difference-maker, as Rosario slugged a three-run, go-ahead bomb off ex-Yankee Mark Leiter Jr. in the eighth inning.

The 107.3-mph, 414-foot blast, which followed an RBI single from Giancarlo Stanton, sent a chilly Bronx crowd into a frenzy as it traveled down the left field line. The Yankees’ dugout, meanwhile, erupted, just as Rosario so often does on the bench when his teammates have success.

Rosario, of course, didn’t contain his emotions just because he was in the game. Rather, he watched the ball sail before pounding his chest and gesturing at his teammates multiple times.

The Yankees also struck first because of Rosario on Tuesday, as Civale surrendered a second-inning, solo homer to the utilityman, who made just his second start of the season. But the A’s clapped back against Schlittler in the third, as Nick Kurtz lined a two-run double following a pair of singles and a sacrifice bunt.

Those represented the first runs allowed by Cam Schlittler this season, but not the last he would permit in the inning, as Tyler Soderstrom doubled Kurtz home with two outs.

Schlittler had retired 21 straight batters, dating back to his start in Seattle on April 1, prior to the third inning, but he didn’t have his best command or velocity with the “feels-like” temperature hovering around 25 degrees. While he remained walk-less on the season – a point of pride for the second-year pro – he wasn’t able to locate like he had in his first two starts of the year and averaged 96.6 mph with his four-seam fastball.

Schlittler totaled five innings pitched, five hits, three earned runs, zero walks, seven strikeouts and 84 pitches in his first start at Yankee Stadium since his dominant Wild Card outing last October.

Civale had his own trouble locating during the chilly night, as he walked four batters over five frames. However, Rosario’s first dinger was the right-hander’s only true mistake, and Civale gave up two hits while striking out six.