– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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NEW YORK — It is difficult to find any real nits to pick on a team playing better than .700 baseball over the first month of the season, but the New York Yankees did see infielder Gleyber Torress struggle mightily at the plate over the first two weeks of the season, and a turnaround there would make an already dangerous lineup even more formidable.
Today’s comprehensive performance from Torres would probably be placed under the category of the rich getting richer.
Torres drove in all five runs for the Yankees on Wednesday afternoon, including a go-ahead three-run home run in the fourth inning, as New York completed their homestand with a 5-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays, securing a two-game sweep of its division rival. Jameson Taillon gave up two earned runs in 5 1/3 innings pitched before handing things over to the Yankees’ dominant bullpen, who closed the game with 3 2/3 scoreless innings.
New York is now 17-3 in its last 20 games, and it has coincided with Torres rounding to form at the plate after struggling out of the gate. With runners on first and third in the fourth inning and the Yankees down 1-0, Torres drove an 0-2 fastball from Blue Jays starter José Berrios to right and into the first row of bleachers for his fifth homer of the season. Two innings later, and again with two men on base, Torres drove a fastball out of the strike zone from reliever Trevor Richards into center field to score both Anthony Rizzo and DJ Lemahieu and give New York a 5-2 lead.
Torres now has 16 runs batted in in his last 15 games, this after recording just two in his first 13 games of the season.
“He looks good to me,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I felt like, swing wise, since spring training, he’s been in a strong, strong place. It’s good to see him driving the ball with authority the other way…and he’s done a good job of staying in the big part of the field in some big at-bats. I just feel like he’s really focused. His work’s been really good, and he’s been a big part of this [streak].”
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