Torres key to Yankees’ championship puzzle
NEW YORK — Gleyber Torres has been here two weeks and yet you get the feeling already he’s a guy the Yankees love seeing at the plate in a huge moment, with a chance to win the game.
When the highly touted 21-year arrived on April 22, in fact, Aaron Boone had said Torres wasn’t necessarily going to wow anyone with his skill set, or any specific tool, but would shine because he was such a complete player.
So after the kid on Sunday became the youngest player in franchise history to hit a walk-off home run, 41 days younger than when Mickey Mantle did it in 1953, Boone laughed and reconsidered his thoughts on Torres’s wow factor.
“The intangible thing with him might be his off-the-chart tool,” Boone said.
“It seems like the bigger the spot, the bigger the situation, the better he is. He doesn’t flinch in that moment.”
Indeed, “poise” and “maturebeyond-his years” are the words Yankee people have been using to describe Torres’ potential since Brian Cashman pried him away from the Cubs in the Aroldis Chapman trade in 2016.
He delivered on those descriptions last week in Houston with a game-tying single in the ninth inning of a big win, but who knew he had a moment like this in him, capping a remarkable comeback with a three-run home run to give the Yankees a 7-4 win over the Indians.
For that matter, who knew Torres had this type of power? He hit his first home run on Friday night, turning on a breaking ball, but this was different, taking a slider over the fence just right of centre field off Dan Otero, a sinkerballer
that Boone described as “tough on right-handed hitters.”
His teammates didn’t seem surprised.
“Everybody knows what kind of talent Gleyber is,” Gary Sanchez said. “It’s not a secret. And he’s showing that he has some power.”
Torres has played brilliantly at second base as well, to the point where Boone calls him “a difference-maker on defence,” which on Sunday translated to an outstanding sliding play in shallow right field in the fifth inning to preserve what at the time was Domingo German’s no-hitter.
Is it just coincidence, then, that the Yankees are 14-1 since the kid showed up?
In some ways Torres seems to be the final piece to what could be a championship puzzle, providing that type of defence as well as another tough out near the bottom of a lineup that is leading the AL in runs scored.
Whatever the cause-and-effect, the Yankees sure look like a championship team these days, winning in every way imaginable against some of the best teams in the American League of late.
With Sunday’s win, in fact, they’ve won 15 of their last 16 games, the first time a Yankee team has done that since 1980, and they’re not just squeaking by either, outscoring opponents 66-25 during this stretch.
Most impressively, they’ve gone 9-1 in this most recent stretch against the Angels, Astros, and Indians, three of the best teams in the AL this season, and now the Red Sox are coming to town, still clinging to first place thanks mostly to their 17-2 start, for what should be quite a showdown.
It will feature the two best records in the AL, and after the brawl in Boston a few weeks ago, suffice it to say the atmosphere will be highly-charged in the Bronx.
“That’s what you love about being part of this,” Boone said.
The timing seems right for the Yankees. They’ve even quieted all the talk that their pitching might not be good enough, putting up a 2.06 ERA during this 15-1 stretch. And, if German is anywhere near as good as he looked on Sunday, they have more starting depth than it was thought, as well.