DJ stays hot, Hicks & Urshela homer in Yankee win
TORONTO — Gary Sanchez has renamed DJ LeMahieu. The Yankees catcher simply cannot believe the numbers that LeMahieu puts up with runners in scoring position are human.
“Gary calls him
‘The Machine,’” Aaron Boone said with a laugh.
Again on Thursday night, LeMahieu was unbelievable with a chance to drive in runs. He had three hits, two with runners in scoring position, to drive in two runs as the Yankees beat the Blue Jays 6-2 at Rogers Centre.
“For me, I am taking the same approach in all my at-bats. I think for me, I usually don’t hit for a ton of power, so I need to come through in situations to impact the game,” LeMahieu said. “It’s not always like that. I am just on a good roll.”
LeMahieu’s roll has been key to the Yankees’ success so far this season, particularly with their sluggers — Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton — out of the lineup on the injured list.
His second straight game with three hits helped the Yankees (39-22) snap their threegame losing streak and avoid being swept for the first time in a three-game series since they visited the Astros April 8-10. The Blue Jays (23-39), however, had snapped the Yankees’ streak of nine straight series wins by taking two out of three in the teams’ first meeting this year.
J.A. Happ, who spent six seasons as a Blue Jay, gave the Yankees — and the bullpen that struggled on Wednesday night — exactly what they needed. He held the Blue Jays to one run over seven strong innings. The only run came on Eric Sogard’s sixth-inning homer. Happ struck out four and did not walk a batter as he picked up his sixth win of the season.
“I kind of had a lot emotion tonight, so I was trying to be sort of as methodical as I could, just move on to the next pitch,” Happ said. “I’ve been trying to do that lately. I felt like Gary did a really nice job back there tonight, Setting up with his targets and calling a really good game. We were able to hit on a lot of things tonight. It was great.”
Aaron Hicks hit his third homer of the season, a three-run shot in the second, and Gio Urshela led off the fourth with his fourth homer of the season.
But even Hicks was marveling at LeMahieu’s ability to deliver in the clutch.
“That guy rakes. He’s a true hitter,” Hicks said. “He’s a guy that hits in any location, pretty much all over the field. He’s a great defender. He’s been huge for us.”
LeMahieu drove in the other two runs, giving him 40 RBI on the season and RBI in six out of his last eight games. He extended his current hitting streak to 11 games, tying his season high.
LeMahieu doubled in a run in the second — scoring on Hicks’ three-run homer — and then with Cameron Maybin on second in the fourth, he singled in the run. LeMahieu is 26-for-53 with runners in scoring position. Or to put it another way, when LeMahieu comes to the plate with RISP, there is an almost 50-50 chance he drove in a run.
LeMahieu leads the majors with his .490 batting average with runners in scoring position.