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Yankees Editorial: Heavy Hitting Leads the Yanks’ Through April

By Antonio Mendes

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The New York Yankees started the season 3-6, a record that wasn’t a surprise to their spring training critics. Much of their slow start was blamed on a lacking offense, however, after that rough start the contact hitting came alive, followed by the power. Heavy hitting not only came alive, but it was coming alive at the right time in key situations.

The Yankees have been taking advantage of opposing teams bullpens all year. Though the Yanks were down early in many of their games played in April, skipper Joe Girardi put the team on constant attack mode to keep games close. One of the best moments during April was Stephen Drew‘s pinch hit grand slam to take a game against the Baltimore Orioles. Seven of the Yankees 13 wins in April were decided by one or two runs, the mark of a great post-season team.

The Yankees have been doing this with one major tactic, which is getting the lead man on. No matter who it is, just getting a man at first can turn into a quick run by stealing, or a harmless single, then putting a runner in scoring position. You might say it’s not that easy, and usually it wouldn’t be, but the Yanks are making it look like practice as of late, even if they are the most shiftable team in the MLB.

Girardi has been mixing and matching lineups near perfectly this season, adjusting to starting pitchers. With the switch hitters, and a couple newly acquired lefties in the off-season, there’s is nearly nothing an opposing team can do to counter these lineups. Adding onto Girardi’s maze of a lineup, he gave chances to the players in the lower half of the lineup to get their bats going when fans were calling for their benching. With him doing this, it hasn’t just been the first five batters winning these games for the team. It has been a collective effort, then being closed-out by the duo of Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller.

Though it has been a collective effort, you have to take time out to realize who led the team through April. The man who stood out most was Mark Teixeira. He’s off to a red hot start with nothing but power in his bat (literally). Tex is leading the league in Isolated Power (ISO) and despite having a .211 batting average, he’s tied for third in home runs (8) and five RBIs behind the league best (23).

April for the Yankees was more than satisfactory hitting wise. The team is now in first place and is scoring runs like they knew they could. If they keep on it, and get some other players going, May should be an even better month.

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