Aaron Boone gave what he described as “reset” days off to two skidding players he still fully believes the Yankees will need to get righted down the final weeks of the regular season.
A slumping Joey Gallo and a shaky Gleyber Torres both were left out of the starting lineup Tuesday night against Toronto lefty Steven Matz.
After striking out four times in Monday’s 8-0 loss to the Blue Jays, Gallo entered the day batting .130 with six home runs and 61 strikeouts in 123 at-bats since the Yankees acquired him from Texas ahead of the July 30 trade deadline.
“I’m trying to get back into the feel I was having earlier in the year, just getting my swing back to where I feel good and letting the ball travel. Just getting back to that,” Gallo said on the field after taking early batting practice at the Stadium. “Obviously you want to play well, especially coming to a new team. But at the same time, it’s not the first time [I’ve slumped].
“It’s baseball and you’re going to struggle sometimes, but obviously I’m working hard to get back to where I know I can be and help the team win. It’s frustrating not winning games, but that’s part of baseball. I just have to keep working and showing up every day and figure it out.”
The Yankees lost for the seventh time in nine games Monday following a 13-game winning streak that vaulted them back into the first wild-card position in the American League. Andrew Velazquez started at shortstop Tuesday night in place of Torres, who made two costly defensive mistakes (one error) in the team’s previous two losses.
Boone said he doesn’t envision Torres losing playing time or being taken out of games late for defensive purposes in favor of either Velazquez or Tyler Wade.
“I know Gleyber’s made a couple of mistakes defensively the last couple of days and has had some on the year, but I think it’s important to look at the body of work Gleyber’s put in this year defensively. It’s been a lot of steady play,” Boone said. “He’s had some plays that the narrative kind of lasts on one play for the better part of a month, but if you look at the day in and day out body of work, I think he’s been really steady for us.”
Boone had stuck with Gallo in the No. 2 hole despite his recent offensive struggles, but Aaron Judge was moved into that spot in the batting order, followed by Anthony Rizzo and Giancarlo Stanton. Brett Gardner started in left field, with Judge remaining in center and Stanton in right.
“Hopefully it’ll reset him a little bit,” Boone said of Gallo. “I know he and [hitting coach] Marcus [Thames] and [assistant] P.J. [Pilittere] were doing a lot of work with him underneath today and studying some different things and then took some things out on the field against the velocity machine.
“Hopefully it’s just a day for [Gallo] to kind of catch his breath a bit and hopefully something he can benefit from a really good workday.”
Gallo, who leads the American League in both strikeouts (186) and walks (102) this season, said he believes “a day [off] is good every once in a while.” He added that he understands the boos increasingly directed at him recently by the Bronx fans.
“I did like when Luke [Voit] was hitting behind me, because I wasn’t sure if it was boos or ‘Luke.’ I was hoping they were ‘Lukes,’ ” Gallo joked. “It is what it is. Obviously you play in New York, you understand that’s gonna be part of it.
“They want a winning product. It’s just part of the business. We’re professional baseball players, so you have to go out there and do your job and do it to the best. It’s not anything to be too upset about or anything.”
