Even MLB home run king Luke Voit has to prove it again this year

LAKELAND — Luke Voit will go into this season with a gashed-open right knee and a chip on his shoulder. The Yankees slugger cut his knee on a baserunning play in Thursday's game and has a gash that he says will be an annoyance until October.

So too will the feeling that everyone is doubting him — again.

Voit is coming off a year where he led all of baseball in home runs. It took just 22 homers, however, to be crowned the home run king in the weird, 60game coronavirus pandemic abbreviated 2020 season.

He knows people think there should be an asterisk on that.

“It's something that's awesome, but then again it was obviously a shortened season, so everybody is speculating that I can't do it again,” Voit said Friday morning before the Yankees' road game against the Tigers in Lakeland. “So I've just gotta prove everybody wrong. I'm not saying that I'm trying to hit 100 home runs or whatever. I also got to stay within myself and get the job done when I need to.

“But, obviously, I had a great year last year and I will continue to grow off it and do more damage this year.”

So far, Voit is off to a slow start in the spring. He's 2-for-14 with two strikeouts and a walk. He was slowed by a sore left knee over the weekend.

“I just woke up last weekend, it was pretty swollen and sore. I didn't have any plays where I cut wrong or twisted my knee, it was weird. I never really had any knee issues before,” Voit said.

So Thursday, after missing two games because of the knee, Voit tried to test it by going first to third on a fly ball. It was a play that, in spring training, had the Yankees' dugout laughing at him.

“I wanted to test it out. I hadn't really got to test it out in the game yet. So it probably wasn't the smartest play, but I was feeling fast,” Voit said with a laugh. “The reason I got up all gimpy is because my knee pad didn't work very well yesterday, and I gashed my knee open. So that was fun. So that'll be with me until October, but the knee feels great.”

That, having Voit and the other power hitters healthy, is key for the Yankees this season. If Aaron Boone could ever write Voit, Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez and Giancarlo Stanton all into the lineup for 140 games, they could be the new Murderers Row.

“Powerful. Intimidating, and really scary,” Voit said of the potential of this lineup. “I don't think anybody wants to pitch to our lineup, any time of the year, especially with all the big boys in the lineup. Top to bottom, doesn't matter where anybody hits, it's damage time. Anybody can do it at any time.”

Voit's growth into a player who is considered among the best the Yankees have probably surprised some in St. Louis, where he languished as a journeyman in the minor leagues before the Yankees acquired him in a 2018 deadline deal. In that trade, however, the Yankees not only got a power hitter, but one who has grown in his approach at the plate.

Milton Glaser, who was a graphic designer, said, “To design is to communicate clearly by whatever means you can control or master.”

At the bridge table, the defenders need to communicate clearly by whatever they can control — the cards that they play.

In this deal, how should the defenders play to defeat three notrump after West leads his fourthhighest spade?

If you use two-over-one gameforce, North has a close decision.

Even though he has only 11 highcard points, he can justify his immediate game-force because of the useful heart holding. His alternative is to respond three diamonds, showing game-invitational values with six or seven diamonds.

East wins the first trick with his spade ace and returns the spade two. Let's suppose that South takes this trick with his king and runs the diamond queen to East's king. Should East shift to a heart or to a club?

There is going to be a natural reaction to return a club because South opened one heart. But West can tell his partner which suit to lead. At trick two, West could play any of his spades except the queen. If his side-suit entry is in clubs, he tables the spade three, his lowest card in the suit. Here, though, West plays the spade seven, his highest spot card signaling for the higher-ranking suit. Now East knows what to do; there is no guesswork.

These suit-preference signals are great, but the defenders must watch the cards closely and play the right ones at the critical moments. Discuss them with your partner and ramp up your defense.