LOS ANGELES — Those embarrassing pajamas masquerading as big-league uniforms have thankfully vanished just as the Yankees sent a message to the baseball universe that they are capable of staying around deep into October.
When the Yankees arrived in Hollywood, they had dropped three straight games to the A’s and were on a four-game losing streak.
Thanks to a 5-1 win over the Dodgers on Sunday night in front of 53,828 at Dodger Stadium, the Yankees split for Seattle with two out of three wins stuffed into their luggage.
Had it not been for umpire Gabe Morales botching the timeout protocol Saturday, the Yankees may have snagged all three from the Dodgers, who are considered by many to be the best team in baseball.
Domingo German’s first pitch was hit into the right-field seats by Joc Pederson and that was the last run the right-hander gave up. Coming off a subpar outing against the A’s on Tuesday, German allowed five hits, walked two, struck out five and held the Dodgers hitless in seven at-bats with runners in scoring position.
At 17-3, German leads the AL in wins, though isn’t among the favorites to win the league’s Cy Young Award and is likely to have his workload adjusted when the rosters increase Sept. 1.
Combined with the second-place Rays losing to the Orioles, the Yankees increased their AL East lead to nine lengths. It also moved them within a game of the Dodgers in the race for the best record in baseball.
DJ LeMahieu, Aaron Judge and Mike Ford homered off Clayton Kershaw for the Yankees, who set the major league record for home runs in a calendar month. LeMahieu’s homer broke a tie at 58 and Judge and Ford increased it to 61 home runs in August.
Judge homered off Kershaw in the third and has homered in three straight games and four of the past six. Ford, who hit for Didi Gregorius in the third inning and popped out, homered in the sixth. Gregorius was hit in the right shoulder by a Kershaw pitch in the first and suffered a contusion.
Ford added an RBI double in the eighth off Pedro Baez that pushed the Yankees’ lead to 4-1 and Gio Urshela’s bloop single to right scored Brett Gardner from third in the ninth for a 5-1 cushion.
Kershaw gave up three runs and four hits in seven innings and is 13-3.
Aroldis Chapman, who hadn’t pitched in seven days, recorded the final three outs in a non-save situation.
