CHICAGO — Amed Rosario is a hardworking veteran and a valuable resource for some younger teammates, but at the end of the day, he is on the Yankees to crush lefties.
Too often of late, though, especially at a time when they are missing some of their best hitters against lefties, he has not been able to do that.
But Rosario picked a big spot to provide another jolt against a southpaw, taking Cubs lefty Shota Imanaga deep to spark the Yankees in a 2-0 win Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field.
“He’s capable of that,” manager Aaron Boone said. “We need his presence against these lefties.”
In his first 50 plate appearances of the season against lefties (through May 26), Rosario was hitting .273 with an .888 OPS. But in 66 plate appearances against lefties since then, entering Friday, he was batting just .161 with a .454 OPS. The struggles were noticeable in particular because he has usually been batting first or third against lefties, as the Yankees carry on without Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger and Giancarlo Stanton.
Rosario’s 450-foot shot in the fourth inning — the second-longest home run by any Yankee this season — was their first base runner against Imanaga, who had retired the first 11 batters in a row. It was set up by his 11-pitch battle in the top of the first, which Imanaga ended up winning on a strikeout, but not before Rosario fouled off six pitches while working the count full, which later paid dividends.
“I definitely think it helped, not just me but also my teammates,” Rosario said through an interpreter. “Being able to have a good at-bat, long at-bat allowed me to see all the pitches.”
It was also the only bit of resistance the Yankees showed their first time through the lineup against Imanaga, who cruised early, before Rosario and Spencer Jones homered the second time through.
“We’ve had too [many] of those innings where a pitcher’s gone through in 10, 12 pitches, whatever it is,” Boone said. “It’s hard to score. It’s hard, on given nights, to keep putting crooked numbers up. But those are the kind of at-bats that can pay off for you as the game unfolds.”
If the weather allows, the Yankees are scheduled to face another lefty Saturday in ex-Met David Peterson — the seventh lefty starting against them in a nine-game stretch — offering Rosario a chance to build some momentum after Friday’s blast.
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“It was good to see us really lean on one,” Boone said. “That ball’s covered. … Imanaga the first time through the order kind of cut through us pretty easily. I thought the second time, we barreled a lot of balls up. We didn’t have a ton to show for it, but we did have the two big homers, and overall throughout that lineup, guys were taking better at-bats and hitting some balls on the screws. So that was good to see. But obviously the two big homers carried the load today.”
