New York Post, Tuesday, August 13, 2019nypost.com48
T
HE great baseball philos-
opher Derek Jeter once
said — check that, he
said it about 200 times — that
it’s not necessarily the best
team that wins the World Se-
ries. It’s the team playing the
best at the right time.
Hence the question: Can
these 2019 Yankees, having
endured so much already,
trying to avoid securing an
unfortunate
footnote in
their fran-
chise’s glori-
ous history
— and, most
important,
quite possi-
bly not the
industry’s best team —
sprout optimally?
The matter loomed
throughout the Yankees’ day-
night doubleheader sweep of
the horrendous Orioles, 8-5
and 11-8, Monday at Yankee
Stadium, giving them 14
straight wins over the gut-
renovation operation from
Charm City. Gleyber Torres
went deep thrice more, giv-
ing him an amazing 13 hom-
ers against these guys. He so
flustered the Orioles that in
the eighth inning, they inten-
tionally walked him with
Yankees on first and second.
Good grief.
Torres has enjoyed a steady
sprout his sophomore sea-
son. On Monday, some in-
jured guys took steps to join
him, as did an active player
who has registered an un-
characteristically quiet cam-
paign.
“He’s real close, I feel like,
to going on one of those
streaks where he gets ‘Didi
hot,’ and then those numbers
start to fly,” Aaron Boone
said.
The manager naturally was
speaking of Didi Gregorius,
as the Yankees’ shortstop
shined in Game 1, ripping a
tiebreaking, three-run homerin the first inning and adding
a sacrifice fly in the seventh.
“I’ve been hitting the ball
harder this last couple of
times, so I think it’s a good
feeling,” said Gregorius, who
didn’t play in Game 2. “I’m
getting there.”
He owns a .263/.290/.453
slash line, and those numbers
don’t match the foundation
he has established since join-
ing the Yan-
kees. The bat-
ting average
and on-base
percentage
sit lower than
any of his
four prior
seasons; the
slugging percentage tops
only the .370 he sported in
2015, his pinstriped debut.
Part of it surely can be at-
tributed to shaking off the
rust after undergoing Tommy
John surgery on his right el-
bow last October and not
making his season debut un-
til June 7. Another part, Gre-
gorius acknowledged, re-
flects a strain he recently suf-
fered on his left hand, be-
tween his pinkie and ring fin-
ger.
“If you haven’t noticed, ev-
ery time I take a swing, I ad-
just my batting gloves to
make sure that everything
stays intact,” said Gregorius,
who can be a free agent after
this season. He added, “I’m
just figuring out how to deal
with it. ... [It’s] pain tolerance,
basically.”
Better news, mostly,
stemmed from the morning,
when both Dellin Betances
and Luis Severino, each of
whom has missed the entire
season with both right shoul-
der and lat problems, threw
off a mound and reported
good health.
“The fun part is about to
start,” Betances said. “I’ll be
back for that.”
Luke Voit (sports hernia)spoke with similar
optimism after
he ran sprints.
Aaron Hicks,
however,
proved not
as lucky; he
needs to
rest his
strained
right flexor
another two
weeks.
Imagine this Yankees
team with Voit and Hicks back
in the lineup, with Severino
back in the starting rotation
even if it’s on a limited pitch
count, with Betances in the
bullpen. Envision Gregorius
playing closer to the guy who
led the Yankees to their great-
est postseason upset in 20
years, their 2017 American
League Division Series victory
over the dangerous Indians.
While you’re at it, picture
Aaron Judge, who didn’t start
Game 1 and went 0-for-3 with
two walks in Game 2, regaining
the power that made him this
team’s most popular player.
Not all of this will happen,
and others on the roster
might get hurt or slow down.
Yet the Yankees have figured
out ways to keep their mas-
sive injury bug at bay. If they
can cash in on more of their
talent come October ... al-
though they still won’t be fa-
vored over the Astros or the
Dodgers, they’ll rank as less
of an underdog.
The Yankees don’t want
2010-19 to go down as their
first calendar decade without
a title since 1980-89 or, worse,
their first such period with-
out so much as a pennant
since 1910-19. They’ll require
some more sprouting to es-
cape that unwelcome distinc-
tion. All they can do is note
the ups and downs that each
day brings and breathe easier
when, as occurred Monday,
the ups prevail.
[email protected]Ken Davidoff
GleyberTorres
continued his destruction
of Baltimore
pitching with
three homers
during the
doublehead-
er sweep —
includinga
pair of
three-run shots
in the nightcap.OF THEDAY