As Aaron Judge continues to take the necessary steps to make it back to the Yankees, a few expected contributors in a lineup that has underperformed mightily in his absence finally are beginning to show signs of life.
After DJ LeMahieu and Giancarlo Stanton crushed key home runs on Saturday, Anthony Rizzo ended a two-month homerless drought among his four hits on Sunday as the Yankees completed a three-game sweep of the Royals.
Of course, Kansas City boasts the third-worst team ERA in baseball at 5.25 after the Yanks put up 18 runs during the weekend sweep.
They will face a more formidable test Tuesday night in three-time Cy Young winner Justin Verlander, who has posted a 1.74 ERA over his past five starts for the Mets.
“It doesn’t matter who they have going, we have a job to do and we gotta be ourselves and do what we have to do,” Stanton said Sunday. “Good at-bats, tough outs, that’s what builds four-, five, six-run games. … The plan now is for all of us to click at the right time.”
Throughout his career, Stanton has been prone to home run binges, and he has gone deep six times in his past 11 appearances to boost his season total to 13.
He went 2-for-4 in each of the past two games against the Royals, marking only the second time this season the five-time All-Star has posted multiple hits in back-to-back games.
“I think I’m just on time a little better,” Stanton said. “The hits are falling, but I’m making better contact than previously on my outs, too. I think even having a little more productive outs can lead to success.”
Stanton isn’t the only pinstriped regular with an All-Star track record finally starting to heat up in recent games.
LeMahieu has notched at least one hit in 11 of his last 12 appearances, batting .318 (14-for-44) over that stretch.
And Rizzo’s long-awaited breakout game on Sunday had a reassuring effect throughout the clubhouse.
“Down the line, we’re gonna need everybody, top to bottom,” center fielder Harrison Bader said. “Obviously Rizz, to see him get going the way he did [Sunday] obviously means a lot to us. We pull for each other. We support him. We support everybody.
“So obviously it was a big day, but more important than the results has been how he’s been battling through it, staying positive, staying focused, and still being a productive player for us, regardless of the offensive results. … We’re all excited for him.”
They are just as excited about the pending return of Judge after he took live batting practice Sunday for the first time since injuring his right big toe on June 3 in Los Angeles.
Getting back the reigning AL MVP soon would be akin to adding one of the best players in baseball at the trade deadline.
“Exactly. Whenever he’s ready, he’s obviously going to be a huge boost for us,” Stanton said. “We’ve shown we can do big damage when we’re all clicking. We feel like it couldn’t go like this forever, and it was only a matter of time.”
It certainly didn’t seem that way when Stanton and several others were flailing along for much of the season, prompting a change in hitting coaches this month from Dillon Lawson to former All-Star Sean Casey.
Rizzo praised Casey’s approach after Sunday’s win as an “old-school baseball mind” that “blends so well with the new school.”
The Yanks sport a 53-47 record at the 100-game mark of the season.
They are tied with the Red Sox for last place in the AL East, but they entered Monday’s action two games out of the final wild-card spot.
Following the Mets series, Aaron Boone’s club will play its next six games against the top two teams in the division, the Orioles and the Rays.
“As I’ve said, we’re incomplete, there’s a long way to go. It’s definitely good to kind of right the ship here with a good weekend,” Boone said after Sunday’s game. “The good thing is we’ve got a lot of baseball in front of us. Like I said, we’re in control of our destiny and we’re in control of the story. We get to write our own story. It’s all right there in front of us. We’ll enjoy that off-day and be ready to come out and try and shake hands [after a win] on Tuesday.”
