SAN FRANCISCO — Aaron Boone likes to call this the week of overreactions.
Small sample sizes in the opening days of the season can provide dangerous fodder from which to make sweeping conclusions.
But given that this group of Yankees hitters had a substantial run together last season on the way to scoring the most runs in the majors, there was a little more legitimacy behind their reminder Wednesday night of what they are capable of on a daily basis — rolling deep and making life tough for opposing pitchers.
“I think you got a lot of different guys with a lot of different abilities,” said Austin Wells, who chipped in two hits out of the nine-hole in a 7-0 win over the Giants at Oracle Park.
“I think it blends really well and we all feed off each other. Starting with [Trent Grisham] at the top and working its way down, one through nine, that’s how it played out [Wednesday] and it’s been playing out for the last half-year.”
On many nights over the course of the season, the Yankees will crush homers or jump on Aaron Judge’s back to rack up wins.
But since this group has been playing together after last year’s trade deadline, it has also shown the ability to have nights like Wednesday, when it racks up 10 hits — nine of them singles, with Grisham’s two-run triple being the only exception — with a well-balanced attack.
“I think we can beat you a lot of different ways,” Boone said.
Boone noted some of the Yankees’ aggressiveness on the bases paying off — such as Giancarlo Stanton scoring from second on José Caballero’s single to left field, Caballero hustling into second on the play when the throw went toward third base, and later Jazz Chisholm Jr. beating out a double play and forcing an errant throw that allowed Ben Rice to score from third.
Even more encouraging was the production from the bottom of the lineup, which fueled the five-run second inning and took the pressure off Judge, who went 0-for-5 with four strikeouts.
“I think guys were just going up there, doing what the game asked them to do, take their knock and we put a bunch of balls in play, found a couple holes and ended up putting up a good number,” Ryan McMahon said. “No easy outs. If we can just [keep] stacking those good at-bats, hopefully good things like that keep happening.”
The Yankees will try to show off more of their lineup depth Friday, when Boone plans to play all of his right-handed hitters against Giants lefty Robbie Ray (the only southpaw scheduled to face the Yankees this trip).
That could mean Paul Goldschmidt leading off and playing first base (for Ben Rice), Amed Rosario manning third (for McMahon) and Randal Grichuk starting in left field (with Cody Bellinger sliding to center and Grisham on the bench).
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
