Yankees Aaron Hicks nixes struggles with the sticks

The Yankees Aaron Hicks did more than ignite his team last night. He also put right the baseball world.

The Yankees Aaron Hicks came off the disabled list on Thursday but did not show up until Friday. The awakening of his O turned around this pivotal match-up with the Red Sox, while his defensive prowess saved it.

Hicks was much maligned for his so-called contributions to the 2016 Yankees, and rightly so. But pillorying has turned to praise, and the verdict for the 2017 New York Yankees version of Hicks, so far, is: Damn!

His value was on full display last night as his bat sent a shock wave through Yankees Stadium.

His hit did more than putting two runs on the board, though; it seemed to put the Red Sox on their heels. But if his hit helped wake a sleeping Yankees offense in the bottom of the eighth, his strong right arm put the Red Sox’ comeback to sleep in the top of the ninth.

For seven and a half innings, the Red Sox looked like they owned a lethargic Yankees team. In one inning, the Yankees took control of the game—and their destiny—while Hicks emerged as the best player on the field.

One More Time: A Red Sox Beating

But that’s not all that emerged in a revealing win. For instance, this win was sweeter than most, even your average Red Sox beating, for several reasons.

It was especially gratifying to see the Yankees do most of their damage against Addison Reed. The Mets have decided to slit their throats rather than trade to their crosstown baseball neighbors. Well, that’s understandable. But two aspects provide a possible spot of bother.

One, the Mets reportedly traded at least one player for half of his value. Now, I’m not sure how they evaluate things over in Queens, but many, many teams recognize that prospects are more ghosts than tangible big league players. The more you acquire, the better chance one of them will materialize for your team.

Not the Mets. They would rather trade a player who has proven he can play in the majors for Ryder Ryan, a nobody from nowhere doing nothing. Good plan. But that’s their business.

But, two, the Mets have also seemingly decided to go out of their way to trade to the Yankees rivals. They sent Lucas Duda to the Rays, while the Yankees played them, and closer Addison Reed to the Red Sox. That’s not very neighborly. And it makes the Mets’ decisions the Yankees business.

Hicks’ hit not only damaged the best-laid plans of the mice-like Mets but also gave the pre-seasonally predicted World Series team a peak at what’s coming for them next week. The Yankees just beat the Mets best relief pitcher and insidious plan.

Soon, they’ll just be beating the Mets.

Insights into another Aaron

And subsequent at-bats, only made meaningful by Hicks, showed again that Aaron Judge is more than a home run hitter. Aaron has been scuffling, but that seems a natural regression to the mean. His value has always been a combination of power and high on-base percentage.

As much as a huge home run in the eighth would have been the best of all possible outcomes, working a walk showed patience and maturity. Judge’s OBP is .423, and it served him and the team well last night.

But that alone would not make his contribution worth mentioning, as his walk pales in comparison to the hits that guys such as Todd Frazier and Gary Sanchez got.

No, it was the advanced base running later in the inning, going first to third while Sanchez scored, that combined to move him from the unmentionables pile.

It takes a thousand, thousand little things to succeed in baseball and Judge is doing a lot of them well. And thank you, Paul O’Neill, for pointing it out.

Judge was the central driving force behind the offensive outburst in the Yankees first half. Now he’s struggling. But his OBP, Superman-grade throwing arm in right, and high baseball IQ allow him to contribute to the Yankees on a daily basis.

And Paul O’Neill’s full predictive powers were revealed once again when he announced the 3-2 pitch to Hicks to be a major one. Sure was. 3-2 is always of interest, but if Hicks had fouled it back, the statement is a bit hollow. As they say in the Bronx, from Paul’s lips to God’s ear.

It’s fine if former Red Sox help the Yankees win many, many titles. Players such as Babe Ruth, Wade Boggs, and Johnny Damon make true the assertion. But, a Yankees player helping Boston beat New York? Not only is it clearly against all things holy, but also I’m sure the High Priestess of the Church of Baseball, Annie Savoy, would rail against it as a sin.

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Hicks helped avoid that fate. And he helped remind us of valuable baseball adages, such as one big hit can spark a struggling team, and having the best player on your side can be the difference between winning and losing.

The Yankees have nine more games to bloody some Sox. If Hicks keep hitting and gunning down players in crucial situations, he will remind both the Yankees and Sox of one final adage: A new, young Yankees is always better than an old one.