Real Bird lands along with new competition
IT WAS, of course, just a coincidence. Of course it was. What else could it have been? But on the day that Brandon Drury, who recently moved to first base while toiling at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, was promoted to the Yankees to provide a right-handed alternative to dragging lefty Greg Bird, the Birdman of The Bronx cracked two home runs to emerge from a lengthy slumber. The first traveled 392 feet to left-center off lefty Eduardo Rodriguez in the fourth inning of the Yankees’ 8-1 rout of the Red Sox in the opener of the threegame weekend confrontation between the two AL East powers. The second was more Birdlike, into the lower right stands off righty reliever Justin Haley in the eighth., The second, in fact, was more Yankees-like, representative of the left-handed power into the Stadium’s right-field porch that has historically been as much a franchise trademark as the Pinstripes, themselves. “The key for me is balance,” said Bird, who entered the game with a slash line of .191/.308/ .392, with three homers and six RBIs in 104 plate appearances since coming off the disabled list on May 26. “I just keep working at it. I have to find it. I’ve got to ride it out through the ups and downs and keep at it. “You can’t miss [pitchers’ mistakes] in this league. Guys are too good. Hits play; misses don’t.” Bird came into the game 1-for-15 against lefties. He was in the lineup because of his career numbers (3-for-9, with one home run) against Rodriguez. The Sox will throw lefties Chris Sale and David Price to the mound on Saturday and Sunday, so this probably represented Bird’s best chance to make an impression in this series.
“It was a matchup, too,” Aaron Boone said in explaining his decision to keep Bird in the lineup despite Drury’s promotion. “Ro- driguez doesn’t have the same hard split as the next two guys.”
Indeed, the fourth-inning homer came off a 95.8 mph fourseamer. And while Aaron Judge, who crushed a two-run blow of his own in the eighth inning, testified he had seen Bird “do that for years in the minor leagues,” it marked the first baseman’s first opposite-field home run since 2015 and second of his big league career, according to FanGraphs.
“It felt really good to see Birdie impact the ball,” Boone said. “Hopefully that will jumpstart him. A left-handed on-base power guy, especially in this ballpark, that’s a big part of who we are.”
CC Sabathia was masterful, essentially dominating from the get-go on this night, during which a steady hum filled the ballpark. The kids, Gleyber Torres and Miguel Andujar, ignited the attack that gave their team a 4-0 lead before Bird stepped to the plate in the fourth.
These were the Yankees, who stepped back into first place by percentage points while increasing their loss-column lead to two games over Boston, as more than just a semblance of being all they could be. Here were the Yankees, with baseball’s best record at 53-26, in their power and glory.
First base has been a nagging issue all season. Neil Walker, whose tenure may be in jeopardy, Tyler Austin and Bird had produced paltry numbers. New York first basemen had combined to produce the AL’s 14thbest batting average (.202) and on-base percentage (.279); 13thbest slugging percentage (.377) and OPS (.656). An expected source of power ranked tied for seventh in homers (12) and 11th in RBI’s (39). Little wonder, then, that Drury finally got the call.
But the Yankees have been through this before with Bird. He got off to that 6-for-60 start last year while hobbling around on a bad right foot that eventually required surgery. It was the right foot that put him on the DL this year, too.
Still, Bird had provided more than promise while in Pinstripes. It was his seventh-inning home run off stud lefty reliever Andrew Miller in Game 3 of last year’s ALDS that provided the only run in the 1-0 victory that started the club on its way back from a 2-0 deficit in the best-of-five series.
The pop is there and so is the potential for the 25-year-old. Regardless, management wasn’t about to wait for him forever, not with the importance of finishing in first place in the division in order to avoid the wildcard knockout game.
On Friday, the waiting was over. It was a coincidence. Of course it was.