Marcus Stroman’s ‘gritty performance’ kept Yankees in it early

Late-game Yankees heroics? Sure, but how about another “gritty” five-inning start from Marcus Stroman?

Since making his return off the injured list at the end of June, the 34-year-old righty has been solid, including Thursday night’s 6-5 extra-inning win against the Mariners when he threw five innings, allowing two earned runs, six hits and two walks while striking out three.

“Just another gritty performance,” manager Aaron Boone said of Stroman. “That’s another five innings — I thought he pitched really well.

“I don’t think there was a thing [the Mariners] could really count on from him — whether it was sinker, whether it was changeup, whether it was cutter, whether it was really slowing down and changing speeds with different breaking balls — he gave them a lot of different looks and kept us in the game.”

Stroman’s outing was nothing extraordinary, but it was serviceable, which is much more than could be said about his previous starts before the IL stint.

He opened his 11th season in March with three starts in which he never made it past five innings.

He allowed seven runs across 8 ²/₃ innings in his first two starts until his struggles culminated in a five-run outing in which he didn’t make it out of the first inning and wound up on the IL with knee inflammation.

Those three outings put his ERA at a whopping 11.57.

But in his three starts after being sidelined since April 11, Stroman has posted a 3.60 ERA in 15 innings pitched.

While that post-IL ERA isn’t jaw-dropping, it’s right around his 3.77 career average.

Stroman’s recent stability may have arrived at just the perfect time, as the Yankees’ rotation looks to reach the July 31 trade deadline when they’ll likely aim to acquire another arm.

With Clarke Schmidt out for the remainder of the season due to Tommy John surgery, and Luis Gil and Ryan Yarbrough likely to need until August to make a return, Stroman being effective is needed badly over the next few weeks.

He’s keeping the Yankees in games and giving exactly what they expected when they brought him in on a two-year, $37 million contract ahead of last season.

“I’m just pitching confident,” Stroman said. “Just really allowing myself to be myself. I’m not shying away from who I am as a pitcher.”