Greg Bird makes case to stay in Yankees lineup | Lucas

In his season of struggles at the plate, Greg Bird may have finally gotten his groove back. Last Friday night, Bird had his best offensive game of the year, and he had it while under as much pressure as he has had this season. The Yankees entered the game trailing the Boston Red Sox by one game for the…

In his season of struggles at the plate, Greg Bird may have finally gotten his groove back.

Last Friday night, Bird had his best offensive game of the year, and he had it while under as much pressure as he has had this season.

The Yankees entered the game trailing the Boston Red Sox by one game for the lead in the American League East, and, of course, the two teams met on Friday for the first game of a three-game set. Bird entered the game hovering around the Mendoza line, and still had yet to reach double-digits in home runs or RBI.

On top of that, the Yankees opted to call up Brandon Drury from Triple-A Scranton, where he hit .314 with five home runs and 29 RBI in 48 games while recovering from injury. Just for good measure, Bird faced another test with the Red Sox starting left-handed pitchers in three consecutive games in the Bronx.

I was able to catch up with Bird in the Yankees clubhouse hours before the first pitch of Friday night’s game. Although seemingly every reporter surrounded Brandon Drury, Bird gave me a solo interview of about 5-10 minutes, all the while easy-going and unfazed in spite of his recent hitting woes. He gave me a brutally honest assessment of his recent play, admitting that his recent work at the plate was probably worthy of his number seven spot in the lineup that evening. He simply told me that he was at the major league level to “perfect his craft” and “keep it going.”

Bird also seemed undaunted by the prospect of facing not only three left-handed pitchers, but also two pitchers considered some of the best in baseball in Chris Sale and David Price (who pitched Saturday and Sunday, respectively). He refuted the claims of his critics by arguing that he not only hits well against left-handed pitching, but also that he can hit to all parts of the ballpark, rather than just pulling the ball to right field. Concisely, Bird told me, “I can hit to all fields, [but] nobody sees it.”

The baseball world would see it just a few hours later. Although Bird struck out looking in the second inning, Miguel Andujar’s RBI single had already put them up 1-0, and Gleyber Torres would hit a sacrifice fly two innings later. Andujar immediately followed with a two-run home run to double the lead at 4-0.

Bird stepped in the batter’s box next. Red Sox starter Eduardo Rodriguez had allowed four earned runs in less than four innings. After throwing a ball on the first pitch of the at-bat, he dealt four consecutive fastballs to his fellow left-hander, and got him to chase two of them. With the count full, he stuck with what he knew and fired another heater. Bird took the pitch and, right on cue, rode it the other way, 392 feet to be exact, into the first row behind the left field wall. Bird jogged around the bases with a metaphorical weight slowly coming off his shoulders.

Though Bird popped out in the sixth inning, an Aaron Judge blast off reliever Justin Haley would make it 7-1 Yankees coming out of the seventh inning stretch. Haley remained in the game through the eighth inning in order to keep the Red Sox from wearing out their bullpen after only one night against their rivals.

With the game already out of reach, Bird took a Haley breaking ball and confidently pulled it into the right field seats to lock up the second multi-home run game of his young career. The young Colorado native has had trouble staying in the Yankee lineup, but seems to at least have a good case to remain.