Gregorius helps Yanks become road warriors
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Perhaps they will become Road Warriors, too, especially after Friday night’s wild turn of events, with Didi Gregorius again leading the way.
For all their success at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees need to do well on the road, and they went into action against the Angels at the Big A on Friday night with a 4-4 road record.
The Yankees tied it 3-3 in the ninth on Brett Gardner’s sacrifice fly and won it in the 10th on Gregorius’ 10th home run of the season to come away with the dramatic 4-3 victory that saw Didi get a curtain call on the road because of all the Yankees fans in attendance.
With the Yankees leading 2-1, in the seventh, the Angels put two men on with singles by Mike Trout and Albert Pujols. With two outs, and after a wild pitch by Luis Severino moved the runners up, Andrelton Simmons lined a triple to right to put the Angels ahead.
Shohei Ohtani crushed a solo home run in the second inning for the Angels’ first run, but he left the game in the seventh with a sprained left ankle.
The Yankees got their first two runs scored on sacrifice fly balls, the second looked like it was going to be a three-run home run to right by the struggling Neil Walker in the sixth inning, but right fielder Kole Calhoun made a spectacular catch to rob Walker — Calhoun’s second great catch of the night as Giancarlo Stanton was doubled off second base just after Gregorius scored.
The Yankees feel so comfortable at home, they are trying to find the same comfort on the road.
The Yankees have won seven straight. They own a plus-36 run differential.
One of the problems for the Yankees early, Aaron Boone noted, is that with all the bad weather they have faced they could not get extra hitting in like they did on Friday. Boone grew up in SoCal, so he knows all about this perfect baseball weather.
The Yankees and Boone are trying to build the perfect baseball team at home and on the road, so they added some extra batting practice five hours before the game Friday.
The Red Sox are off to an 8-2 start at home. They have already played 15 road games before the calendar flips to May. They have posted 11 wins in those 15 games giving them confidence that they can beat any other team any other place. The Red Sox’s run differential is a gaudy plus-64.
The Yankees’ offense can be relentless, but it hasn’t fully clicked yet. Stanton is doing much better, but still hasn’t made that total transition to a new team, new league and playing in a bunch of new ballparks. That takes time.
But here are some scary numbers: Despite the Yankees still getting it together they are off the charts in many categories. They went into the night leading the majors in OPS with an .826 mark, RBI (143), total bases (392), home runs (39) and slugging percentage with a .475 mark. The Angels were second in home runs with 37.
Some of that has to be attributed to playing in the bandbox that is Yankee Stadium, but remember the Yankees have played in some dead-ball-era bad weather this month, when the ball didn’t carry. Now that they get to take their show on the road, the hitting could really take off or it could go south when it runs into the Astros pitching staff.
This is a vital trip for the Yankees, seven big games — four with the Astros beginning Monday — and then they go home to face the Indians and Red Sox so they will need to be at their best.
Leading the Yankees’ hitting charge this April has been the incredible Gregorius, who continues to amaze as he gets to play a series agains his childhood friend from Curacao, Simmons. Gregorius went into the night leading baseball with a 1.245 OPS. He was second in the majors in batting average, .368, to the Cardinals Tommy Pham, .372.
All this and still five months of regular season baseball to play.
Yes, it’s MV-Didi.