Brett Gardner, in the final month of his age 38 season, is putting together quite the September as the Yankees try to lock up a playoff spot.
After belting a three-run home run against Cleveland on Friday night to break the game open and lead the Yanks to a much-needed laugher, the veteran is now up to a 154 wRC+ in September, by far his best monthly mark of the season. Gardner is batting .298 since August came to a close, and after struggling badly at the plate for much of the season, the longest-tenured Yankee is trying to lead the offense to its elusive potential when it matters most.
“It was nice to be able to do that,” Gardner said of his three-run blast, his third home run so far this month. “I think we’ve obviously played a lot of really close games recently, and it was nice to have one that wasn’t quite so close. To pull away in the end and give those guys in the bullpen a little bit of a breather is always nice.”
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In exactly one month, Gardner has boosted his season OPS by nearly 50 points, raised his batting average from a lowly .208 to .225, and has continued a recent trend of finishing the season strong in September. The Yankees will try to follow Gardner’s lead and do the same, as they hold a half-game lead for the final playoff spot in the American League.
“I think all season, we’ve had a lot of ups and downs and played really good baseball, and times this season where it’s been really frustrating and played some bad baseball,” Gardner said. “I think this time of year, it’s important to slow the game down and realize we still have a great opportunity ahead of us.”
Gardner is clearly seeing the ball better than earlier in the season, as he has driven over 55 percent of his batted balls back up the middle this month, easily his highest monthly rate of the year. He is slugging .574 in September, and just helped the New York bullpen take a much-needed night off. With Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge and Joey Gallo in the outfield fold while Luke Voit clamors for DH time, Gardner will be tough to leave out of the lineup down the stretch with the way he’s been swinging the bat.
“I feel good,” Gardner said. “I feel strong, feel healthy, feel like I have my legs under me…we’ve seen some results out on the field. For me, it’s continuing to maintain that aggressive mindset in the zone sand lay out of pitches out of the zone.
“I’m just trying to take things one game at a time, slow things down and keep things rolling.”
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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