Who has been the New York Yankees’ savior over the past few games?
The last two games for the New York Yankees have been horrendous defensively, or to be more specific – their pitching as been devastatingly bad. Allowing 38 runs in their past three games, you wouldn’t believe the Bombers managed to win two of them, but how?
While Aaron Hicks’ spectacular game-winning catch against the Twins surely helped, they would have been blown out without the efforts of shortstop Didi Gregorius.
Didi is 9-for-14 in the last three games, hitting two singles, four doubles, one triple, and one home run. Of the Yankees 24 runs against the Twins, Gregorius accounted for 10 of them. After starting off slow in his return from injury, the infielder has been lights out at the plate, and his defense has been solid as always.
To give you an idea of how efficient he’s been, his first game of the series against the Twins placed him in the record books. Notching five hits and seven RBIs, he’s fifth Yankee since 1920 to do that. He’s one of three to go 4-for-4 or better with seven RBIs in multiple games, sitting alongside the company of Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio.
“I was trying to drive the ball to left-center, and trying to stay consistent and trying to keep that in the game,†Gregorius told reporters in Minneapolis. “I did that with the first pitch I saw from (Kyle) Gibson. I drove it to left-center.â€
As Didi continues to progress and pick up momentum, the team will only reap the benefits. Having his defensive capabilities is only a benefit to the offensive production he’s capable of having.
As the pitching rotation begins to recover from numerous ailments, the team as a whole should begin to dominate without having to compensate with massive run production. Luckily, Gregorius was here to save the day(s).