What is the point of having a six-man bench full of right-handed hitters if you are only going to use one across three innings against a lefty reliever with your season fading away?
That was the scenario the Yankees faced Monday night in Game 2 of the ALDS against the Rays, trailing 5-1 in the sixth inning when Ian Seymour entered the game.
Aaron Boone had left-handed hitters Luis García Jr. and Spencer Jones hit for themselves in the sixth inning, then stuck with three more lefties in the seventh (Jazz Chisholm Jr., Trent Grisham and Austin Wells), with Seymour retiring all of them.
Finally in the eighth, Boone pinch hit Paul Goldschmidt for Ryan McMahon, though the veteran righty bat hit a harmless pop-up on the way to another meager offensive performance outside of Ben Rice’s two solo homers.
“Seymour I view as very neutral,” Boone said Tuesday. “So there would’ve been a right-hander I would have used at some point had we gotten runners on base, but by the time he was in the game it was 5-1. So I was playing more of a get on base, see if we could create traffic and then possibly shoot [Giancarlo Stanton] or Goldie or [Heliot] Ramos in a spot there.”
This year, lefties hit .244 with a .789 OPS against Seymour while righties hit .217 with a .683 OPS.
During a regular season in which the Yankees leaned on him heavily, using him in 81 of their 161 games, Brent Headrick mostly delivered, including allowing only 14.8 percent of inherited runners to score — which ranked sixth among qualified relievers.
But after he looked to be running out of gas down the stretch, the left-hander’s dip in velocity has carried over into the playoffs.
His fastball averaged 93.2 mph (down from his season average of 94.1) in Monday’s Game 2, which included giving up a two-run single to Richie Palacios in the fifth inning after a George Lombard Jr. error extended the inning.
“I think we’ve seen velocity from anywhere from 91 to 94 in the last couple outings, so if we can keep him in the 94 range, there’s definitely plenty of effectiveness there,” pitching coach Matt Blake said Tuesday.
“Striking the slider has — obviously — has become a priority, using the offspeed effectively, which he’s done in the second half of the year. Using the splitter a little bit more to the righties, leaning into the slider to both lefties and righties and then he’s got to be effective with his command of the fastball, and ultimately that’s where we’re at this time of year. He’s been used a lot and he’s doing his best to stay fresh down the stretch, but ultimately we got to keep making pitches when it’s important at this time of year.”
After arriving back in New York early Tuesday morning, the Yankees had an optional workout at Yankee Stadium, though Boone had said Monday he hoped most of his players would “stay away” to get some rest.
“Whatever guys feel like they need to do today … hopefully guys were able to sleep at least a little bit and kind of recover today,” Boone said. “And I’m sure there will be some guys in, at least moving around and doing some things behind the scenes to be ready to go [Wednesday].”
