Josh Donaldson starting to heat up
CHICAGO — After hitting two home runs in his first 27 games, Josh Donaldson hit two in two nights. The veteran third baseman got off to a slow start, hitting .215/.342/.344 with a .686 OPS, but has been heating up as the Yankees offense is shifting into high gear.
“I still feel like he’s getting there,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said, “and I feel like that’s kind of been where he’s been for the last couple of weeks. He’s been getting on base. He’s been popping one ball a game that he’s smoking. He’s got the ball in the air a little bit more the last couple of days, obviously hitting the ball out of the ballpark. He had a couple of line drives over (White Sox outfielder A.J.) Pollock’s head last night, too.
“So I think [he’s] starting to get the ball on a line and in the air a little bit more consistently. But the at-bat quality, he’s been kind of grinding that way the last few weeks, where he’s getting that hit or getting that walk each and every day and now he started following [with] some damage.”
Donaldson has had multiple hits in each of his last two games after having just one in the previous 27. He’s driven in six RBI in the last two games and had seven in the 27 before that.
Same old Bombers: While the Yankees have been preaching diversity in their lineup and offense, they’ve kind of found their way back to being the same old Bombers. They went into Saturday night’s game against the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field leading the majors with 48 home runs. They have hit 11 homers in their last four games.
While Boone has been quick to point out that they are getting big walks and doubles, he admits the long ball is an important part of the Yankees’ offense.
“It is an important part of the game,” Boone said. “And we certainly have guys that can get the ball out of the ballpark . ... One of the exciting things early on in the season, as we’ve talked a lot about, is the amount of ways we’ve been able to win ball games; low scoring, defense, base running, pitching and hitting the ball out of the ballpark. The fact that we’ve really swung well the last couple of nights and hit the ball out of the ballpark. Hopefully, it just continues to give us confidence that we can win in a lot of different ways.”
Aaron Judge leads the majors with 12 homers, Giancarlo Stanton has 10.