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New York Post, Tuesday, August 27, 2019
nypost.com
52
FOOT ON THE GAS: Mike Ford rounds
the bases on one of his two home runs in
the Yankees’ 5-4 win over the Mariners in
Seattle on Monday night. Getty Images
By GEORGE A. KING III
SEATTLE — Mike Ford has
a Princeton University educa-
tion and a body that resembles
a run-stopping nose tackle.
Combine those two attri-
butes with a sweet left-handed
swing and you get the latest
Yankees first baseman contrib-
uting to a team headed for the
American League East title.
Ford homered twice Mon-
day night and led the Yankees
to a 5-4 victory over the Mari-
ners in front of 23,030 at T-
Mobile Park. His two-run
homer in the second and solo
blast in the fourth were off
lefty Tommy Milone and
raised his total to eight in 97
at-bats this season. His first
multi-home run game of a
brief major league career fol-
lowed a homer off Clayton
Kershaw, a lefty way above
Milone in the pecking order,
during Sunday’s win over the
Dodgers in Los Angeles.
When the season opened
Greg Bird and Luke Voit were
at first. Then Bird got hurt. DJ
LeMahieu and Voit handled it
for a while. Kendrys Morales
played several games there,
was injured and vanished.
Voit went down with a sports
hernia and Edwin Encarna-
cion landed on the IL with a
fractured right wrist.
That necessitated the Yan-
kees elevating the left-handed
hitting Ford for a third time
this year from Triple-A in
early August.
With Voit possibly escaping
the IL on Friday, Ford’s roster
spot could be in jeopardy, but
after what he has done the
past two games, that would be
a tough call.
A Rule 5 pick by the Mari-
ners out of the Yankees’ organi-
zation in 2017, Ford was re-
turned to the Yankees in spring
training the following year.
“I try to keep that out of my
mind. There are no hard feel-
ings but it is definitely nice to
stick it to them,’’ Ford said of
the Mariners, who are last in
the AL West while the Yan-
kees are cruising toward their
first division title since 2012.
J.A. Happ went five innings,
gave up two runs, five hits,
walked three and struck out
seven for the win. He is 11-8.
The homer he gave up, the
32nd he’s allowed this season,
was a three-run poke to center
in the second to Dylan Moore
on a change-up that cut into
the middle of the plate. Happ’s
bloated home run total is sec-
ond to Justin Verlander’s AL-
leading 33.
The victory, which included
Gleyber Torres’ 33rd homer, in-
creased the Yankees’ AL East lead
to 9 ½ games over the idle Rays.
What would a Yankee game
be lately without an in-depth
discussion with the umpires?
Monday night’s incident in-
volved plate umpire Manny
Gonzalez go-
ing to the
mound and
having a discus-
sion with for-
mer Mariner re-
liever Cory Gear-
rin about the toe
tap he uses with
his left foot. Even-
tually crew chief
Sam Holbrook
joined the con-
versation and
when the
scrum, which
included
catcher Austin
Romine and
Aaron Boone,
ended, Gearrin
was assessed a ball
and later a balk because
he violated a rule with his
delivery that he says MLB has
told him is legal.
“We felt he was resetting his
foot with his delivery to the
plate which they are not al-
lowed to do. Before we called
anything [plate umpire]
Manny [Gonzalez] did a good
job and sent the catcher out to
give him a heads up. So he
wanted to call us out there so
we went out there and spoke
with him,’’ Holbrook said.
Nestor Cortes Jr. relieved
Gearrin and gave up a homer
to Mallex Smith in the sev-
enth. Tommy Kahnle worked
a perfect eighth and Aroldis
Chapman posted his 36th save
in 41 chances.
[email protected]
YANKEES 5
MARINERS 4
One more game
and this box
will be called
FORD instead
of SAVAGE.
After homering
off Clayton
Kershaw on
Sunday,Mike
Fordswatted
two homers
off another
lefty, Tommy
Milone, to help
the Yankees to
a 5-4 winover
the Mariners at
T-MobilePark.