NEIL WALK-OFF!
Pinch-hit blast caps Bombers’ much-needed comeback win
Neil Walker soaks it all in after his solo homer lifted the Yankees to a 5-4 win over the White Sox. A night after a “sluggish” loss, the Yankees were down 4-0 before Miguel Andujar and Aaron Hicks blasted two-run shots in the sixth and eighth, respectively, setting up Walker’s heroics.
By comparison, the quest for the Holy Grail was child’s play compared to Greg Bird’s search for consistency during the 2018 Yankee season.
The lefty first baseman has endured a nightmare season after finally being deemed healthy following surgeries and disabled list stays that torpedoed all of 2016, much of 2017 and the start of this year. Health finally has arrived. Production has not.
“It’s about consistency. I feel like this year I’m had more trouble finding that consistency for sure,” said Bird, who was back in the starting lineup Tuesday — along with an 0of-17 skid — after sitting two games behind Luke Voit.
“You’ve just got to keep going. Keep looking for it, keep finding it. Sometimes, I think we get too wrapped up in trying to find it instead of letting kind of happen. Sometimes less is more.”
Bird lost 2016 to shoulder surgery. Then he underwent right ankle surgery in July last year but returned in August. That procedure, coupled with some other ailments — like a bruised knee — cost him 103 games in 2017. Another ankle surgery, for a bone spur, also killed the first 47 games this season. Bird insists the ankle is not an issue.
“I’m fine. I’m right where I need to be,” Bird said of his health.
Manager Aaron Boone has maintained Bird is the victim of stamina shortage. You sit for so long, it takes a while to build everything back.
“That’s part of it, absolutely,” Boone said before the Yankees played the White Sox. “Coming off of surgery, missing significant time, it’s just building that stamina, that strength to where you’re back to. When you’re a big-league player, you’re like a race car getting everything firing properly. That’s what makes guys special and hopefully, the work he continues to put in can get him to that point because we know when he’s right, he’s a difference-maker.”
Instances of Bird making a difference have been few and far between. He slugged homers in consecutive games Aug. 18 and 19 and there was hope that explosiveness was back and the solution was uncovered. Nope. Consistency remained elusive.
“Obviously, it’s not what you want. But in this, in life, in anything, there are just things you don’t want happening,” Bird said of his season. “But it’s baseball and you’ve just got to keep going.” Fans are not as patient. Or forgiving. “Reggie [Jackson] always said they don’t boo nobodies,” Bird said. “I give it everything I got. I prepare. I work. I know where I’m at. I think if it was 22-year-old me, it would it bother me a lot more. But you just keep going.”
And searching. The Yankees staff believes he is on the cusp. But at some point production is required over promise and potential.
“The last couple months he’s been working hard behind the scenes, trying to get right, get that timing right, get strong,” Boone said. “It’s been a tough up and down for him, but hopefully he can go out there and get some success. … I feel like it’s absolutely in there.”
Said hitting coach Marcus Thames: “His work’s been good. We’ve just got to get the results in the game. Just got to have more consistent at-bats. He’ll show you spurts where he’s barreling the ball up good and then he’ll lose it. So we’ve just got to keep working and you’ve got to keep giving him trips to the plate and hopefully he can turn this thing around because we’ve got to have him. … I don’t think [the ankle] is an issue. It’s just we’ve got to get better results.”
So Bird got a shot again Tuesday when Chicago right-hander James Shields took the mound. But Bird did not look at it as a produce-or-else proposition.
“Every time you play, you’ve got to do something,” Bird said. “I do everything I can to succeed. That’s how I look at it. It’s another day. It’s baseball. It’s a game. Put together quality at-bats, play quality defense, try to help my teammates. … Failure sucks but nobody that ever did anything great didn’t fail along the way. You’ve just got to learn from it and keep going.”