YANKS SWEEP
Bronx kid Velazquez lives his dream with two RBI; Rizzo back from COVID-19 with big game
Andrew Velazquez knows the routes to Yankee Stadium all too well. The Yankees’ fill-in shortstop took them all as a kid growing up in the Bronx and coming to the ballpark as a fan. Back then, he dreamed of being like his idol, Derek Jeter, and making the big plays to be the hated rival Red Sox. Wednesday night, he got to live it. Velazquez drove in two runs and made a tremendous defensive play to end the game as the Yankees beat the Red Sox 5-2 in front of a packed house at the Stadium.
Anthony Rizzo returned from the COVID list and made a big impact as well, driving in two runs and making a great play on a one-hop throw from Velazquez to end the game after a lengthy replay review.
Velazquez’s teammates gave him the championship belt that serves as a “player of the game,” honor.
“I just said that I’m honored to be here and in that locker room with those guys and like I’ve dreamt of doing what we just did,” said Velazquez in his definitely proud New York City accent. “So in real life, it was way better.”
Velazquez’s diving stop of Kevin Plawecki’s two-out, ninth-inning ground ball that got past Rougned Odor sealed the Yankees’ season-high tying sixth straight win. The Bombers have leapfrogged the Red Sox in the standings and are a half-game ahead of Oakland for the American League’s top Wild Card spot. They trail the AL East-leading Rays by five games.
It gave Andrew Heaney his first win as a Yankee and he deserved it. The lefty who had struggled in his first two starts since being acquired from the Angels, allowed one run on two hits and two walks. He struck out four.
But Velazquez’s play on both sides of the ball had him getting the honors from his teammates.
“He’s been great,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “We were excited to bring him up. I think he endeared himself to our room in spring training. I think everyone enjoyed getting to know him and seeing his skill set up close.
“He can really play short, but he has the defensive versatility to move around. You see the speed that he has, and he can swing the bat a little bit,” Boone continued. “So he’s gotten some big hits for us here obviously the last couple days and played really well in helping us win games.”
Velazquez had an RBI-single in the Yankees’ four-run second inning that chased Boston sarter Nick Pivetta. He then had another in the eighth inning to tack on a run and give the Yankees some wiggle room.
“It’s been fun to watch and after the game he just said a couple words of him growing up here and dreaming of this and how much better it is in person. It’s special stuff,” said Rizzo said. “And he got a big hit there and eighth for us, to give us another run. And whenever you can score runs late, I feel like it just deflates the other team a little bit more.”
The Bombers would need
Aroldis Chapman, pitching in his first day after coming off a stint on the injured list with elbow inflammation, could not slam the door. He gave up a one-out home run to Hunter Renfroe and then walked Xander Bogaerts. He gave up a single to J.D. Martinez and Aaron Boone had to come out and remove him.
Lucas Luetge got his first save since August 2012, coaxing the ground ball from Plawecki. It got past a diving Odor before Velazquez dove to grab it, got up and threw across the field on a one-hopper. Rizzo, who was playing his first game after missing 10 on the COVID-19 IL, picked it to finish the game -- after a review, of course.
“I was just ready for anything there, anything on the ground, and I didn’t know if Rougie was gonna make a play on it,” Velazquez said. S”o just trying to see what was gonna happen there. And then, when I got to it I said, ‘I’m gonna throw it as hard and as low as I can, so that Rizzo can just pick it.’If not, I would have thrown it in the family section in the second deck.”
In one three-game series against the Red Sox, Velazquez,who said he didn’t think he went to Yankees-Red Sox games as a kid because the ticket prices were too high, drove in four runs, surpassing his previous career total of three. Signed as a minor league free agent, Velazquez is living out his childhood dream -- and doing like a true New Yorker by crashing with his parents to save money on rent.
“It’s like 20, 25 minutes away, depending on which way I go,” Velazquez said. “It’s a lot closer than staying in Manhattan. Cheaper,too.”