KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- For the third time this season, Chris Young enjoyed a walk in from the bullpen instead of a light jog. After a round of fist bumps in the bullpen, he walked in from left field bullpen with a jacket on and avoided the infield dirt instead of stomping over it.
Young headed towards the dugout and not the mound, shed his extra layer and hopped up the steps to the mound, where he delivered another nearly spotless outing in Kansas City's 12-1 win over the Yankees on Friday night.
The right-hander hadn't been afforded this luxury for most of the season, being used primarily as a long-relief man as part of Kansas City's stellar relief corps.
But on Friday night, Young took the ball in another spot start, dazzling again across 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball. He struck out two and limited the New York bats to just four hits.
In his three starts this season, Young owns a 0.54 ERA, the only earned run he's allowed coming during Friday's fourth inning. His overall ERA jumped from a miniscule 0.78 to a slightly less miniscule 0.94. Opponents have collected just 11 hits off the right-hander. They are managing a .113 batting average against Young.
What the Royals have gotten from Young so far has been much more than they could have reasonably expected when they signed him to a free-agent deal two weeks into spring training. Royals manager Ned Yost said he was surprised Young was still around when Kansas City inked him.
"I'm like 'Heck yeah, if we can get him, let's get him,'" Yost said.
But Yost has not been surprised by Young's excellence, staying he foresaw his right-hander's success. Kansas City has played 36 games and -- aside from Wade Davis -- Young has arguably been the club's pitcher.
"Because he's that good," Yost said. "He did it last year. Every time we faced him, those were the kind of starts that we saw and the rest of the American League saw."
With Jason Vargas on the disabled list, Young easily slots into the role of a starting pitcher. He had been one for the previous 10 seasons of his career. It was familiar. It was normal. It may be temporary.
When Vargas returns from a left flexor strain, Young will likely be relegated back to relief duty, the Royals sticking with the same starting rotation they carried into the season. Danny Duffy, Jeremy Guthrie and Vargas have each weathered bumpy stretches this season. Young hasn't needed to.
His starts have come simply because of circumstance. Edinson Volquez was serving a five-game suspension two weeks ago. Call on Young. Vargas gets hurt. Call on Young.
"We just take it start by start," Yost said. "I fully expect Vargy to come back strong. I fully expect Duffy to bounce back strong. If we run into an issue in a certain area, we definitely have him that we can count on."
When he did get into trouble on Friday night, he calmly danced away from it. Brett Gardner ripped a one-out triple in the first inning. Gardner stood at third, 90 feet away from scoring the first earned run on Young in 29 days. But Young enticed fly outs from Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixiera and walked to the dugout with another scoreless frame.
In the third inning, Young issued a two-out walk to Jacoby Ellsbury, who stole second. But Gardner popped out this time.
An inning later, Young finally wilted. Rodriguez led off with a double that softly landed between Lorenzo Cain and Paulo Orlando on the warning track in right-center field. Teixiera followed with a single. Brian McCann then lifted a sacrifice fly to right, plating Rodriguez.
Young allowed just one more hit after that -- a single to Teixiera in the sixth -- before departing after a season-high 91 pitches. Young said he felt like he still had something left to offer, unlike his last start, which he felt fatigued around the sixth inning.
You can follow Matthew DeFranks on Twitter at @MDeFranks or email him at matthew.defranks@gmail.com.
