GLEY IT AGAIN!
Torres picks up where he left off last year, carries Yanks over Nats
Gleyber Torres celebrates after his seventh-inning home run got the Yankees offense going. The next inning, his two-out single gave the Yankees the lead and thanks to some stellar relief work — helping to overcome Torres’ struggles in the field — the Yanks held on for a 3-2 win in D.C.
WASHINGTON — Remember when the Tigers moved Miguel Cabrera to third base to make room for nine-figure pickup Prince Fielder at first base? I’ll always recall how a veteran, rival team executive analyzed the prospect of sliding over Cabrera, at that juncture still an elite hitter but already immobile as a piano, to the hot corner.
“He’ll let in three runs,” the executive quipped, “and he’ll drive in four.”
Gleyber Torres is far more athletic than Triple Crown Miggy, yet the same principle applied itself on Sunday at Nationals Park — with some help from Torres’ friends. It very well might carry the 23-year-old through his maiden voyage as the Yankees’ full-time shortstop.
Thanks to Torres’ bat and Tommy Kahnle covering for Torres’ second error of this young campaign, the Yankees won their initial rubber game of the season, a 3-2 thriller over the defending champion Nationals. At 2-1, they headed to Philadelphia to take on Joe Girardi’s and Didi Gregorius’ Phillies.
“I feel so bad in that situation, but always, I believe in Kahnle,” Torres said “After my error, he dominated the last few guys.”
The Post can confirm that, as well as the fact that Torres picked up three of the Yankees’ five hits, including a seventh-inning, solo homer to left field off Washington stud Patrick Corbin that broke the shutout, and the game-winning, eighth-inning single to leftcenter off Sean Doolittle that drove home Aaron Hicks with the tiebreaker. The 23-year-old had entered the day 0-for-6 with a walk.
“We were waiting for Gleyber to break out,” said Luke Voit, who slammed the game-tying homer in the seventh off Will Harris. “Today, he finally broke out in a clutch way.”
“In the first two games of the season, I was too excited, after four months [of not playing]. I got too much energy,” he said. “I [woke] up today thinking about putting the ball in play.”
That approach worked well after his first-inning strikeout.
Torres rarely fails to own up to his mistakes after the fact. Regarding his bad throw to Voit on Trea Turner’s one-out grounder in the eighth, he said, “Turner is a really fast guy. I think I got a little rush early.” After Adam Eaton doubled the tying run, Turner, to third, Kahnle delivered, striking out old pal Starlin Castro and Eric Thames around a free pass to Howie Kendrick. The vibe was “definitely the same, even without the fans,” Kahnle said, and for sure, it was tense.
That Torres proceeded to record the game’s final out, getting the speedy Michael A. Taylor on a close play at first to secure Zack Britton’s first save of the season, underlined the young man’s perseverance.
“We say all the time, the next play’s the most important,” Aaron Boone said. “To be a major league athlete, you’ve got to live that. Great job.”
Saturday marked the fourth anniversary of Torres’ becoming a Yankee via a trade that sent Aroldis Chapman to the Cubs, and Torres celebrated on Twitter, writing, “One of the best things that has happened to me NY.” It already feels like one of the best trades in Yankees history, with plenty of time to go (Torres can become a free agent after 2024).
“It’s an honor to me,” Torres said of being a Yankee. “I feel like family every day. Coming to the ballpark, this organization, all my teammates gave me that family feeling.
“I just want to be part of the great history, and I’m working really hard to be part of that history.”
Family members are never perfect, right? The Yankees are counting on Torres, primarily a big-league second baseman before Gregorius’ departure, to grow into his shortstop role. They can more than live with that growth process if he continues to out-hit his miscues and his teammates pick him up as he does them.