Walker gets his chance
anything as a crutch,” Walker said. “It’s taken me awhile to get comfortable at the plate and I’ll leave it at that. I know I’m not that far off.”
Bird was slated to travel down to Tampa on Friday, as he continues to ramp up baseball activity and, eventually, begin minorleague rehab games. He had right ankle surgery on March 27, so he is a little more than a month into a projected 6-to-8 week recovery timetable.
The Bombers infield looked mostly unstable early on, due to the Bird and Brandon Drury injuries, as well as the struggles of both Walker and the since demoted Tyler Wade. But the promotions and strong starts from both Miguel Andujar and Gleyber Torres have totally changed that outlook, with the duo making life difficult for opposing hurlers at the bottom of the lineup.
Drury (migraines, blurry vision) himself just played his first minor-league game on Wednesday for Class A Tampa, and will play again on Friday.
Eventually, decisions will need to be made from a pure playing time standpoint. But like Boone says, in baseball, things often have a way of sorting themselves out.
And regardless, the Yankees currently lead the majors in both runs and homers — this despite All-Stars Gary Sanchez and Giancarlo Stanton flirting with the Mendoza Line. Even after hitting a walk-off three-run homer on Thursday, Sanchez — along with Austin — was taking early batting practice, trying to finetune his swing.
The bigger concern for the Bombers is getting disappointment Sonny Gray back on track and finding more consistency from enigma Masahiro Tanaka. Tanaka (Saturday) and Gray (Monday) have big starts coming up against strong offensive clubs in Anaheim and Houston, respectively. And, of course, hoping Dellin Betances can get on a role with Tommy Kahnle and Adam Warren still sidelined. Plus, cleaning up all the errors defensively.
So it’s really more on Walker to get it going and keep his roster spot, because the team has gotten along just fine without him producing.