Left-handed batters haven’t had a lot success towards Boston Pink Sox ace Garrett Crochet.
Earlier than Saturday evening’s sport within the Bronx, the left-handed Crochet had held lefty hitters to a .163 batting common, a .256 slugging share and solely two extra-base hits in 13 begins.
However Austin Wells proved to be a worthy adversary.
The lefty-swinging Yankees catcher clubbed a three-run residence run and an RBI double towards Crochet in Saturday’s 10-7 loss to Boston — a efficiency that didn’t come as a lot of a shock to supervisor Aaron Boone.
“I expect so much of him offensively, and I think so much of him offensively,” Boone mentioned of Wells, “so he’s capable of that right there against the very best, left on left.”
Wells went 2-for-3 towards Crochet and completed 2-for-4 within the sport, marking his second consecutive two-hit efficiency.
His second-inning residence run got here on a first-pitch cutter, which Wells pulled into the right-field stands. Wells then lined a 96-mph fastball into the hole in left-center for his fourth-inning RBI double.
“The ability to drive the ball the other way like he did, hopefully it’s those little things that kind of get him rolling here, to where he can get hot and really get rolling,” Boone mentioned.
After hitting simply .206 in Could, Wells entered Sunday with a .333 common and a .956 OPS by means of 5 video games in June. He has at the least one hit in seven of his final eight video games.
Requested if these hits towards the hard-throwing Crochet — who has a 2.35 ERA and led the majors with 110 strikeouts after Saturday — can function a confidence increase, Wells replied, “Definitely.”
“[Crochet] threw a lot of good pitches tonight, but I feel like everybody in the lineup did a good job of seeing a decent amount of pitches and putting good at-bats together,” Wells, 25, mentioned. “I got two pitches to handle.”
It’s been an up-and-down sophomore season for Wells, who completed third in American League Rookie of the Yr voting in 2024. He homered within the Yankees’ first two video games, throughout which he turned the primary catcher in MLB historical past to hit a leadoff residence run on Opening Day.
Wells’ .222 common and .288 on-base share going into Sunday evening’s collection finale had been each down from the .229 and .322 marks he put up final yr.
However Wells’ 36 RBI had been tied for the third most amongst MLB catchers, whereas his 10 residence runs had been tied for second. His .743 OPS ranked fifth amongst major-league catchers.
“I expect a lot of myself,” Wells mentioned.
Saturday’s sport was Wells’ third of the season with at the least 4 RBI. His residence run was solely the second struck by a lefty towards Crochet this yr.
“You always feel like, in a big spot against a matched-up guy against him, he’s going to give you good at-bats,” Boone mentioned of Wells. “Hopefully this is something that continues to get him where he really starts stringing some things together.”
