BALTIMORE — It’s like deja vu yet again. The Yankees offense, constructed on energy, modified to be extra balanced and underneath new management, remains to be ready to see outcomes. Eight video games into the season and the questions on scoring and hits with runners in scoring place are already beginning after a brutal 2-1, 11-inning loss to the Orioles on Friday night time.
Aaron Boone tried to chop the comparability to final season off on the go.
“I just think we’re better. I think we’re better overall,” the Yankees supervisor mentioned when requested in regards to the crew falling again into unhealthy habits. “And I believe that’s going to present itself. Obviously, we need to be higher than 2-for-11, however that wasn’t the issue [Friday night].
“We didn’t get enough of anything tonight. That’s 11 innings, seven hits, maybe. I don’t know how many walks we had. So, it was just that we didn’t have a very good offensive night. That’s what we got to turn the page from. I’m confident in our guys that we will get it rolling.”
The Yankees’ main strikes this offseason have been to shake up the teaching employees. In explicit, the Bombers let go long-time hitting coaches Marcus Thames and P.J. Pilittere to advertise minor league hitting coordinator Dillon Lawson after the offense was inconsistent and unproductive. The Yankees have been constructed on energy hitters and to overwhelm their opponents with offense, however completed seventh within the American League in OPS (.729), tenth in runs scored (711) and have been fourth in strikeouts (1,482) final season.
Lawson has instituted an organizational philosophy of “hit strikes hard,” from the underside (rookie ball) now all the way in which to the highest (huge leagues).
“If you peel that back, just one layer. It’s not that complicated,” Lawson defined after he was promoted. “When we swing, we need to swing to hit strikes. When we swing at strikes we’re prone to make extra contact. When we make extra contact, we’re prone to hit the ball tougher.
“The last little thing would be that when we make hard contact, if we can we would like to hit it over the infield. Sometimes we’d like to hit it over the outfield fence … all of that works,” Lawson continued. “But that would be the next layer.”
So far that has not translated to the Yankees offense.
The Yankees went into Saturday night time’s recreation in opposition to the Orioles at Camden Yards ranked second within the huge leagues in common exit velocity and exhausting hit proportion, however are nonetheless under the league common in OPS (.684), OPS+ (99) and slugging (.376).
More to the purpose, nevertheless, is that the Yankees went into Saturday night time’s recreation ranked twenty sixth out of 30 in runs scored per recreation. Their 3.12 runs per recreation is simply higher than the Brewers, Diamondbacks and Orioles. They’ve had the sixth most runners left on base with 59 this season and ranked the fifth worst with runners in scoring place, hitting .180. They have the third worst run-scoring proportion within the huge leagues, which means solely 20% of their runners who attain base ultimately rating a run — they’re higher solely than the Orioles and Diamondbacks.
Another development that appears to have carried over from final season is their penchant for grounding into double performs, they’re second within the majors with 9 up to now. Last season, the Yankees have been second within the huge leagues with 154 GDPs, essentially the most within the American League.
The Bombers didn’t make main personnel adjustments to their lineup. They are extra balanced than they have been at first of the 2021 season and the addition of lefty Anthony Rizzo has been one clear enchancment (slashing .214/.389/.571 with three homers and 7 RBI). DJ LeMahieu is wholesome after an off 2021 wherein he tried to play by way of a sports activities hernia and appears headed to a bounceback season (.280/ .379/.480 with two doubles and a house run).
Both Rizzo and LeMahieu dismissed the comparisons to final season and emphasised that eight video games is such a small pattern measurement in a 162-game season.
“I know the 2021 stuff, but this is the week, just eight games into a whole new journey. So we’re gonna have ups and downs throughout the year and it’s just it’s just the ebbs and flow of the season,” Rizzo mentioned.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com