RED REIGNS IN N.Y.
Clint’s blast in 9th hair-raising
With one display of his supposedly legendary bat speed, Clint Frazier perhaps helped the fading Yankees shift from a red alert back into the hunt for a red — or at least pinstriped blue — October.
Frazier, the outfield prospect who once described himself as someone who plays as if his famously red hair is on fire, lit one under the smoldering Yankees’ first half on Saturday, ripping a three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning for one of the team’s most-needed wins of the season — 5-3 over the Brewers at the Stadium.
“It’s really special for me. I’ve never hit a walkoff homer in my professional career. To do it in the big leagues, in a game that we needed to win, to do it in Yankee Stadium, it was a lot of fun,” said Frazier, whose uniform was still drenched from the customary celebratory bath he received from his teammates at home plate. “They got me pretty good… I had never had that feeling before in pro ball. It was really special to see the way the guys reacted to that home run.”
With a trio of the organization’s new wave of homegrown prospects — Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez and Saturday’s starter Luis Severino — among the five Yankees headed for the All-Star Game festivities beginning Monday in Miami, Frazier couldn’t have picked a better time for his (ahem, cue the Yankeeography music) first true pinstriped moment.
Nearly a year after he was acquired from the Cleveland organization in last season’s Andrew Miller deadline deal, and barely a week after he was summoned from TripleA Scranton to help stem the rash of injuries suddenly compromising a strong first-half run, the 22-yearold Frazier officially has joined the party, as well as the ongoing Baby Bombers youth movement.
“It feels like a weight off, pressure off your shoulders, when you’re rewarded for the work you’ve put in by getting a promotion,” Frazier said. “I think that has helped me up here. I think I feel less pressure up here than I did in the minor leagues.
“I think it was just because I was trying to prove to people that I was the guy that they traded for.”
There suddenly was plenty to prove all around while the Yanks had been slogging along for weeks, not winning any of their previous seven series (0-6-1) and entering Saturday’s matinee with a record of 6-17 during that stretch and 23-31 overall in 54 games (a third of the season) since surprisingly opening the year 21-9 to cede first place to Boston in the AL East.
“That’s a big win,” Girardi said after the game. “Clint’s at-bats all day were good, and to hit a threerun walk-off homer, we needed that.
“(Sunday) we have a chance to take the series, we have (Masahiro) Tanaka going, and I think it’s a really important game.”
Just as important, Severino pitched like the All-Star he was tabbed to be last week over his final six innings, finishing with 10 strikeouts. But a three-run homer by Domingo Santana in the first — one batter after an iffy hit-by-pitch call on Travis Shaw, which Girardi argued for a replay review but lost — felt all day as if it was going to be enough to send the righty to his fifth straight outing without a victory.
The Yankees positively were befuddled for much of the afternoon by unheralded Milwaukee lefty Brent Suter, a Harvard graduate with a degree in environmental science and public policy, but a pitcher with a fastball that doesn’t reach 90 mph.
The Yanks didn’t muster a hit until Frazier’s two-out single in the fifth, and they didn’t score until an errant pickoff throw by Suter and a Frazier triple — his second in as many games — drew them within a run.
Saturday’s other “vital” development — Girardi’s word — was five strikeouts and no walks or runs allowed by late-inning relievers Dellin Betances and Aroldis Chapman to set up a potential rally against Brewers All-Star closer Corey Knebel in the ninth.
Walks to Didi Gregorius and Jacoby Ellsbury around a Chase Headley whiff brought up Frazier, who claimed to have made an adjustment with hitting coaches Alan Cockrell and Marcus Thames on Friday to keep his weight on his back leg before swinging.
“(Knebel) throws really hard. For me, I was looking for a fastball down the middle, something I could drive up the middle and at least advance the runners over one base,” Frazier said. “I got lucky enough that he left one up in the zone that I can handle.
“I stopped hitting that wall and hit one over it.”
Indeed, Frazier pulverized Knebel’s 1-0 heater into the seats in left, and Judge nearly took a tumble while racing his teammates to home plate from the dugout.
“We went wild. I went wild. I almost tripped over the rail right there,” Judge joked. “But it’s awesome to see (Frazier) succeed. To come up here, do his thing, keep swinging the bat well — he got our offense going. He got the first hit, had the triple earlier. So it was a Agood day for him, man.” rare good day for the Yankees of late, and possibly even one that earns Frazier more time in the Bronx even when a few regulars make their way back from the disabled list.
“That’s everybody’s goal,” Frazier said. “There’s a lot of guys prior to me that came up and had a lot of success here. I’m just up here trying to go day-by-day and make a splash every time I step in that batter’s box.”
He made a splash on Saturday, all right. He even a caught a few right into his fiery red locks, although he certainly didn’t seem to mind.