If Wednesday’s offensive disappointment was pinned on Ryan McMahon, who heard boos on a rough day during a rough start, Austin Wells might have been the face of Thursday’s frustration.
What amounted to the Yankees’ best rally of the game — putting two runners on base in the seventh inning, Giancarlo Stanton drawing a walk and Ben Rice connecting for the club’s first hit of the afternoon — ended with Wells flying out on an afternoon the Yankees fell 1-0 to the A’s in The Bronx.
The entire bottom of the order is an early problem for the Yankees, but the struggles of Wells stand out in part because he is not experimenting with a radically different stance (like McMahon) or serving as a fill-in until a reinforcement arrives (like José Caballero) or owning a stellar track record that suggests he will come around (like Jazz Chisholm Jr.).
Wells arrived in the majors a couple of years ago with a reputation as a strong hitter who needed to work on his catching defense. He has emerged as an excellent framer and game-caller, but his bat has only flashed the kind of hitter he can become.
Those flashes have not appeared in the early going this season. Since tallying two hits on Opening Day, Wells has gone 3-for-27 with two singles, a double, four walks and 11 strikeouts.
In a reminder that the season is still in its infancy, Wells shrugged off the slump and was happy with the process that he feels will yield results.
“I feel pretty good [at the plate],” said Wells, who swung through a fastball for a strikeout in the third, grounded out in the fifth and made decent contact with his seventh-inning flyout. “Swinging at the right pitches. I’m just not getting much results. So, keep going.”
His manager, too, thought Wells’ swings were improving even if they were ending similarly.
“A little better, actually. He’s been one of those guys struggling a little bit,” Aaron Boone said after the Yankees were shut out for the first time this season. “The last AB there, where we had a couple runners on, I thought he put together a pretty good at-bat and got some good swings off.”
The Yankees are only about 7 percent of the way into their season, and early April numbers often are forgotten. Plus, the Yankees are generally winning and Wells’ mind and defense are significant factors in the club’s rotation excellence thus far.
But the Yankees also consistently praise what J.C. Escarra can become and insist that Rice could be a major league catcher. So if Wells does not hit, there are other options.
“I feel like there’s been some games where he’s had some quality at-bats,” Boone said, “but obviously we got to get it more consistent, start getting some results. Obviously, he’s a guy that drives the ball as well.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
