The Yankees have stuck with Austin Wells behind the plate because they love the way he receives the ball and works with pitchers.
That’s been on display in both games of the wild-card series against Boston, which the Yankees tied up 1-1 with a 4-3 win at the Stadium on Wednesday night.
But at some point, they needed him to hit in the playoffs, which is something he mostly didn’t do last postseason or in the Game 1 loss Tuesday.
Wells then delivered the biggest hit of the night on Wednesday, a shot to right with two outs in the bottom of the eighth that scored the speedy Jazz Chisholm Jr. all the way from first to put the Yankees up by a run.
“I just got a pitch to put in play,’’ Wells said of the 3-2 changeup from one of the game’s best relievers, Garrett Whitlock, who was in his second inning of work. “He made tough pitches and I felt like I made a decent swing on one of his best pitches.”
The decisive play came after a seven-pitch at-bat in which Whitlock never came close to the heart of the plate. Chisholm raced around the bases and dove in just under the tag of Carlos Narváez.
“I was kind of expecting him to steal,” Wells said of Chisholm. “When it landed, I was waiting to look and see him scoring.”
He got what he wanted and it came after what had been another rough game at the plate, when Wells went hitless in Tuesday’s Game 1 defeat, with a pair of strikeouts.
And after opening last postseason with a hit, two walks and two RBIs in Game 1 of the ALDS against Kansas City, the lefty-swinging Wells had gone in the tank.
He entered Wednesday having gone 5-for-50 with three extra-base hits, just two walks and a whopping 24 strikeouts in his previous 53 postseason plate appearances.
Overall, his .435 postseason OPS was tied for 21st worst out of the 878 players in MLB history with at least 50 playoff plate appearances.
A year ago, Wells lamented the fact that he got exposed on pitches up in the zone as the strikeouts mounted.
It got so bad the Yankees sat Wells in favor of Jose Trevino in Game 3 of the World Series against the Dodgers.
Wells responded with his best game of the postseason in Game 4 versus Los Angeles, when he doubled and homered to help the Yankees avoid elimination for one more day.
On Wednesday, facing Boston right-hander Brayan Bello, Wells walked in the second and then had an opposite-field single to left off ex-Met lefty Steven Matz in the sixth.
But his biggest impact came two innings later.
Even before his breakout on Wednesday, Aaron Boone expressed confidence in Wells, both on offense and defense, saying he was swinging the bat better.
The staggering amount of strikeouts worried some scouts, as well as the lack of quality of at-bats.
Wednesday was just the second time in 16 playoff games that Wells didn’t strike out and Boone said Wells would start again with Cam Schlittler on the mound Thursday for the decisive Game 3.
His comfort level with the pitchers — especially the rotation — has continued to keep him the starter, even with the offensive emergence of Ben Rice.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
