Analytics or gut? Yankees’ Aaron Boone explains how he makes lineup, bullpen decisions

Yankees manager Aaron Boone detailed how he makes lineup and bullpen decisions before Saturday’s double-header sweep of the Baltimore Orioles.

BALTIMORE— Luke Voit hit two big home runs playing first base for the Yankees during Friday night’s comeback win over the Baltimore Orioles, so it was no surprise when he was back in the lineup for Game 1 of Saturday’s day-night doubleheader at Oriole Park.

Then again, Neil Walker had his only two-homer game as a Yankee against the Texas Rangers on Aug. 9, then sat the bench the next day.

Yankees injury news: Latest on Judge, Gregorius, Sanchez, Frazier, etc.

Why bench Walker the day after his best game of the season?

Boone went into detail explaining his decision-making process for lineups and bullpen moves Saturday before the Yanks forged 10-3 and 5-1 wins to sweep the Orioles.

“It’s kind of a day to day, ebb and flow,” Boone said. “It’s not always necessarily performance. Sometimes there’s other factors that go into a guy sitting down. Performance certainly matters (but) I usually don’t get carried away with a guy that has a bad day or a great day in saying the matchup matters to me.

“It’s a balance and there are so many factors each and every day that go into whether a guy’s in there or not where on the surface it may just seem like he did well or he didn’t do well (the previous game or games). That’s not always the beginning and the end of it.”

Like most managers nowadays, Boone often tries playing the odds after studying analytical data, but he says that he overlooks why the stats indicate at times to make decisions on gut feelings.

“Look, I think it’s a balance,” he said. “You’ve got to be able to strike the balance, especially in the course of a long, arduous season, and that’s what we’re trying to do the best we can.”

Asked how often he goes against the data, Boone answered, “It happens. How much? Are you looking for a percentage? I don’t know.

“Look, I pay attention to all of it. I kind of prepare myself with everything and then as the day unfolds, you just go out and play with that as a baseline of knowledge. Sometimes I guess I go against it. But I believe in all of the factors that over time tend to play themselves out.”

Boone says he’ll continue to make decisions by what his gut is telling him to do at times even if that means he’s opening himself up to more criticism if those moves don’t work.

“You may pinch-hit a guy and the reality is he’s probably going to make an out, so it’s going to be technically the wrong decision,” Boone said. “But you’re basically just trying to put guys in a position to be successful to some degree playing the percentages of that and then hopefully it works out more than it doesn’t.”

Randy Miller may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.