The week couldn’t have started any better for Didi Gregorius. In the opener of a four game series in Arlington (TX), he went 3 for 4 and drove in four runs of the total of six that the Yankees scored.
It is no secret that Didi is seeing the ball well lately, but if my memory serves me well, he didn’t collect three hits out of four at bats so far this season. This effort pushed up his batting average to .248.
In his first at bat, in the top of the third, Didi (a notorius first pitch hitter, just like his predecessor Derek Jeter) tied the game with one swing of the bat as he hit a two run homerun with Chase Headley on first base.
In the top of the seventh inning, after Carlos Beltran had drawn a walk and Chase Headley doubled to right field, Didi hit a soft fly ball on the first pitch that he saw to drive in the aforementioned runners.
A small blot on Didi’s escutcheon was a base running boner in the bottom of the ninth. After he had gotten on base with a lead off single and advanced to second on ground out hit by Brendan Ryan, he ran towards third despite the fact that the ball was hit towards third base by Brett Gardner. Gregorius was caught in a 5-6-5 rundown and was tagged out by Adrian Beltre.
Next to his clutch hitting, Didi flashed the leather once again when Shin-Soo Choo hit the ball into the shift.
But Didi wasn’t the only Yankee that had a good night at bat. Chase Headley also went 3 for 4 and scored two runs. Alex Rodriguez hit a solo shot, his 26th homer of the season, on his 40th birthday.
One less positive note is that Ivan Nova was pulled after five innings with a tired arm. A tired arm, a year after his TJ surgery….
Other Dutchies in the Majors didn’t collect a basehit yesterday. Jonathan Schoop went 0 for 2 and Andrelton Simmons went 0 for 4 in a game between the Orioles and the Braves that was won by the O’s 2-1 in eleven innings.
The Red Sox fell 8-10 to the White Sox. Xander Bogaerts went 0 for 5 but is still sporting a batting average of .312.
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