by Yankees manager Aaron Boone sat Greg Bird after he hit two doubles in Friday’s win.
NEW YORK — Greg Bird had struggled for so long. Then he clubbed a pair of double in Saturday’s 5-3 win over the Rangers at Yankee Stadium.
The next morning, he found himself out of the lineup, without a chance to build on his success.
Why?
Manager Aaron Boone was pressed on that before Sunday’s series finale vs. Texas in the Bronx.
Basically, Boone said, it wasn’t enough of a sample size to justify not starting the righty hitting Luke Voit vs. lefty pitcher Martin Perez. Here’s the full breakdown:
Q: Why wouldn’t (Bird) play after getting two doubles?
Boone: Well, I mean, I would say hot’s a little more extended period. But whether a guy’s — you’re talking to me about Greg Bird, who I believe a lot in the player, and who he is and his ability to handle (righty and lefty pitchers). But this doesn’t change that for me. This is more about Martin Perez today, wanting to keep (Luke) Voit relevant, Perez has had his struggled against right-handed hitting in a big-time way this year. It allows me to strategically deploy Greg Bird in a spot where I like. It’s a Sunday day game. We’re still in this stretch. It’s not a matter of hot and cold.
Q: But all that stuff overrides that fact, well, ‘Let’s keep him going because he’d been really struggling and then he gets two hits.’ Now he comes in, he’s out of the lineup. Now that overrides that?
A: I don’t know it necessarily overrides. We kind of take on each day independently and how a guy’s swinging, how rest goes into things. It all gets baked into the cake when I’m making my decision about it.
Going into Friday, Bird had just three hits in his previous 36 at-bats with no extra base hits, for an ugly .083 batting average.
On the season, Bird is hitting .216 with nine homers and 28 RBI in 213 at-bats.
Brendan Kuty may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @BrendanKutyNJ. Find NJ.com Yankees on Facebook.
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