Torres torches rivals, extends lead in AL East
There is good news for the rest of the AL East: The season is only two months longer. There are only so many more times you’ll have to face Gleyber Torres.
Now the bad news: Torres will be back next year. And the year after. And the year after. And the 22year-old infielder is only going to get better. The beatings are only going to intensify.
He continued his assault on division rivals Saturday, blasting two home runs and scoring the go-ahead run in the nightcap of the Yankees’ doubleheader sweep of the rival Red Sox, 9-2 and 6-4, in The Bronx.
Of his 23 homers, 16 have come against AL East foes, and all five multi-homer games have as well — which is tied with Hunter Renfroe and Franmil Reyes for the most in baseball. His other four have come against the Orioles, his personal punching bag.
“The power to all fields, that’s the biggest thing,” Aaron Judge said after Torres became the second-youngest player in AL history to have seven multi-homer games, following Joe DiMaggio. “You never know when he’s going to leave the park.”
A day after his grand slam accounted for all four runs, Torres blasted a pair of solo shots in Game 2, as the Yankees further buried the floundering Red Sox, dropping them to 13.5 games behind in the division and 5.5 behind the Rays for the second AL wild card. But his biggest hit was an opposite-field double off the right field fence in the seventh inning that nearly left the yard for his third homer. Torres settled for a double and came around to score the goahead run on Mike Tauchman’s two-run single later in the frame.
“In the first game I got many opportunities, but I felt too excited,” he said. “I tried to do too much. The second game tried to be more relaxed and control what I can do.”
Last season, Red Sox manager Alex Cora noticed Torres overswinging at times, sometimes taking too big a cut with two strikes. But he’s refined his approach, taking what the pitcher gives him.
“That’s the biggest difference from last year,” Cora said. “Now everything is under control.”