Gio goes the distance twice more vs. Jays
TORONTO — Who needs Iowa? Anywhere Gio Urshela plays these days is a real Field of Dreams. The third baseman continued his breakout season Thursday after MLB announced the Yankees would be playing in a game inspired by the iconic sports movie next season. Just a day after recording the first two-homer game of his career, Urshela did it again as the Yankees beat the Blue Jays, 12-6, at the Rogers Centre.
The Yankees (76-39) won their season-high ninth straight game, and their eighth straight against an American League East opponent. It was also their seventh win of the season against the Blue Jays (47-71).
Mike Tauchman hit a tworun shot and drove in two more with a ninth-inning single. DJ LeMahieu went 3-for-5 with two RBI and Cameron Maybin notched three hits and an RBI.
Urshela hit homers in his first two at-bats Thursday night, both two-run shots replicating his night in Baltimore on Wednesday.
In his last five at-bats, he’s hit four home runs and driven in six.
“Look they’ve been impact players for us. They do it on both sides of the ball. It’s come in a lot of big situations,” Aaron Boone said of the fill-ins who have bloomed into major contributors. “I don’t know how many more ways I can describe it. They have worked hard at getting better at their craft.”
With Miguel Andujar going down with a season-ending shoulder injury the very first weekend of the season, Urshela was brought up after a good spring training. The Yankees expected he could play good defense — he’d proven that in his two previous stops in the big leagues. They hoped he could hit a little bit. The Blue Jays were one of the two teams that gave up on Urshela. Like the Indians, they saw him as a great glove who just never was going to hit in the majors. In 19 games with the Blue Jays last season, Urshela was 10-for-43 with a home run and three RBI. In two years with Cleveland before that, Urshela hit .225 with seven home runs and 36 RBI.
“I always thought he was a prospect,” said one NL scout who saw Urshela in the minors, “but he never really got a chance. It’s a great story, but it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise. The tools were there, the Yankees worked with him and are seeing the results.”
A year ago this month, the Yankees purchased Urshela’s contract from the Blue Jays.
Urshela credits Triple-A Scranton hitting coach Phil Plantier with helping him make strides with his swing and gain confidence in his offense.
“That’s a big change for my career, coming to the Yankees from the Blue Jays. It feels good to be here now,” Urshela said. “I learned a lot from my experience in Triple-A with the Yankees. I worked a lot with that hitting coach, Phil.”
After a slight June swoon, Urshela rebounded in July, hitting .333/.360/.681 with five homers and 11 RBI in 22 games. And in August, after missing two games in Baltimore because he was bruised from fouling balls off his right knee and left shin on Sunday, Urshela has hit .444 with seven home runs and 14 RBI.
It’s not a surprise to Tauchman, who played with Urshela in Venezuela.
“He was an incredible player then, so I’ve seen the offense, him being an offensive force, a doubles machine,” Tauchman said. “Obviously he’s driving the ball out of the ballpark and that’s not even touching on his defense, which is incredible, too.”
Thursday night, Urshela extended his hitting streak to 13 games, the longest current streak in the majors. He has 16 extra-base hits in that span, including seven home runs.