After enduring a stretch of futility the franchise has only seen five times in the previous 24 years, the New York Yankees can finally exhale. A walk-off wild pitch on Saturday against the New York Mets snapped their seven-game losing streak.
The losing streak saw late-inning blown leads, injuries, and Covid-19 cancellations, but an anemic offense stood out most of all.
In spite of the team struggles, Luke Voit continues to showcase his offensive talent. Voit hit his 12th home run of the season, putting his name in the conversation of best starts to a season in Yankees history. The list of Yankees that have hit at least 12 home runs in the first 30 games of the year include Babe Ruth, Yogi Berra, Aaron Judge, Mickey Mantle, Tino Martinez, Alex Rodriguez, and now Voit.
As impressive as it may seem, quantitative numbers are not his endgame right now.
“I don’t really have a goal for how many home runs,” said Voit. “I just want to have good at bats, control the strike zone, and make sure I am walking. If I barrel the ball, I know I got a good chance of hitting it. I’m usually out if I hit it on the ground.”
Voit is doing just that. According to Baseball Savant, he is barreling up 17.7% of pitches he swings at, which puts him in the top-two percentile. Meanwhile, he chases a below-league average 23.9% of pitches outside of the strike zone while drawing walks at a league average rate of 8.2% of his plate appearances.
From a traditional evaluation standpoint, this has led to his .310/.381/.713 slash line entering Saturday’s game, leading the league in slugging percentage and OPS.
Luke Voit Helping the Team
As Luke Voit continues his hot streak, his only focus, aside from his approach at the plate, is winning.
“I’m doing everything I can to help this team,” said Voit. “I [have to] find a way, and I want to win. Losing sucks.”
Although the team jut endured a lengthy stretch without winning, Voit was carrying the offense. He has reached base in 14 of his last 15 games while recording a hit in 13 of them. The bulk of his 12 home runs have come in that stretch as well. He has seven in his last eight games and eight in his last 13.
Improving the Offense
Voit still knows there are areas to improve on, such as hitting with runners in scoring position.
“We [have to] get better with hitting with runners on in scoring position,” said Voit.
Counting Saturday’s win, the Yankees have scored 21 runs in eight games, less than 3.0 per game. They rallied in the fourth inning of the Saturday’s, but saw runners thrown out at the plate on back-to-back plays. Although the runs did not score, this is a good sign for a team that has become reliant on the home run to generate offense.
They have scored 83 of their 146 runs in 2020 via the home run, including 16 of their last 27. The team understands that they need to produce more offense without relying on the home run, as echoed by catcher Erik Kratz.
“We still have to take advantage of runners in scoring position, we still have to take advantage of pushing guys around the bases, and we still gave to take advantage of knocking guys out of games early,” said Kratz. “As a lineup when we start doing that, we’re going to start scoring more runs.”
Even though the offense failed to produce a surplus of runs again, the Yankees can relax after ending their losing streak. Luke Voit continues to fuel the team right now, but as players begin to get healthy and return from the injured list, putting that streak behind them may be just what the team needs to ignite the rest of the lineup.
Main Photo: Embed from Getty Images
