Why Yankees’ Dellin Betances imitated Gary Sheffield in 1st AB since high school (VIDEO)

Yankees reliever Dellin Betances provided some comedy in the 4-2 win over the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Pa. on Monday, June 25, 2018 (6/25/18). Betances had his first at-bat in 12 years in the eighth inning.

 

Dellin “Gary Sheffield” Betances [?] pic.twitter.com/u7RLwWNf3K

— YES Network (@YESNetwork) June 26, 2018

PHILADELPHIA — Every Yankees player in the dugout stood at the rail in the eighth inning of Monday night’s 4-2 interleague win over the Phillies when reliever Dellin Betances stepped into the batter’s box for his first big-league at-bat.

Most were rooting hard with giant smiles watching this 6-foot-8 giant wiggle his bat forward just like Gary Sheffield used to do when he hit 509 homers slugging for the Yankees and a bunch of other clubs from 1988-2009.

The Yankees fans at sold-out Citizens Bank Park, and it sounded like there were about 20,000 of them, were into it, too.

Betances, who retired the final two outs of the seventh and would go back out for the eighth, wanted no part of this at-bat against Phillies right-hander Yacksel Rios.

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None.

Not only hadn’t Betances hit in a game since 2006 when he was a high school senior at Grand Street Campus High in Brooklyn, this was the first time he’d even picked up a bat in 12 years.

“I was praying and hoping that my turn didn’t come, but the (baseball) gods wanted me to hit really bad,” Betances said. “We strung a bunch of hits together and my AB was coming up.”

Betances hit with two runs in, baserunners on second and third, one down and the Yankees leading 4-1.

Using a Mizuno bat belonging to injured pitcher Masahiro Tanaka, Betances didn’t come close to making contact striking out on three pitches, but it sure was entertaining.

“I tried to go out there and do my best Gary Sheffield impression,” Betances said. “I didn’t make any contact though. I used to hit like that in high school. I’d goof around like Gary. I liked to watch him play and I like to watch him hit, so I tried to imitate his batting stance in my own way.”

Betances took a high fastball for a strike, then swung as hard as he could swinging through the next two offerings, a 97-mph heater and then another that was clocked at 96.

“I was obviously trying to do some damage,” Betances said. “It didn’t happen.”

Yankees manager Aaron Boone was nervous watching.

“I’m in the favor of this DH thing, that’s what I’m thinking,” Boone said. “That said, I thought he had some pretty good swings. They were violent, but, man, my heart skipped a beat about seven times now watching our pitchers swing the bat. I don’t love it.”

Betances warned teammates to expect the worst.

“I was telling all the pitchers, ‘I don’t want an AB. It’s been 12 years. I’m not going to look good out there,’ but it was definitely fun,” Betances said. “I think everybody was just kind of laughing. Everybody kind of enjoyed that moment.”

Right fielder Aaron Judge got a kick out of it.

“It was awesome,” he said. “We were all loving it in the dugout. I know some of the fans were cheering pretty loud, too, for it. It was a pretty cool moment to watch. That might be the last at-bat he gets. You never know.”

After taking the first pitch, Betances momentarily gained a little confidence.

“I was seeing the ball well,” he said. “I thought I had a chance. I think playing catch with (closer Aroldis Chapman) helps. Chapman throws 106. So playing catch with him definitely helped me see the ball well. But I couldn’t make any contact.

“I took some good hacks. I came up short.”

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