Three-steal day makes Anthony Volpe 6-for-6

Anthony Volpe is the first to acknowledge that  “I’m not the fastest guy by any means” on the Yankees.

But that does not mean the rookie cannot be a significant threat on the bases.

It was the case during his climb through the minor leagues — Volpe stole 44 bases in 110 games with Double-A Somerset and six bases in 22 games after his end-of-season promotion to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre last year — and has been the case in his limited time in the big leagues.

Volpe stole three bases in three tries Saturday in the Yankees' 6-1 victory over the Twins,  improving to 6-for-6 in stolen bases this season.

“It’s something that I work on and a lot of the guys work on,” he said. “If there’s any opportunity in the game where we can find a window, I think everyone wants to take advantage of it.”

Volpe, who has reached base in 7 of 15 plate appearances in his last four games, became the youngest player in franchise history (at 21 years, 352 days) to record three steals in a game. He became the first Yankee to steal three bases in a game since Ichiro Suzuki did so in the second game of a doubleheader against Toronto on Sept. 19, 2012.

“He’s just a great baserunner,” Aaron Boone said. “Incredibly instinctive. Not a burner but a good runner, runs well. But he just does his homework [and] has really gotten really good at being under control while also being super-aggressive and working his momentum out there. He’s really good at it and he causes problems when he gets on the bases.”

Honoring Jackie

All uniformed personnel in the sport wore No. 42 Saturday, as they do each year on Jackie Robinson Day (Robinson, suiting up for the Brooklyn Dodgers, broke baseball’s color barrier on April 15, 1947).

“He’s one of the most important figures in American history,” Boone said. “The fact that our sport is intimately intertwined with it is very cool. The fact that our sport gets to honor that and pay respect to that and shine a light on it is a great thing. It’s an honor to see everyone out there in that number with our T-shirts and our socks and everything. I think it’s a great thing for America and for our game.”

Latest on Donaldson

Josh Donaldson (hamstring) is eligible to return from the injured list on Sunday, but with the Yankees having an off day Monday, the club could wait until Tuesday to activate him, which essentially would give him two extra days of recovery time. Boone, speaking before the game, also didn’t rule out Donaldson being sent to the minors for rehab games.

“We’ll have those conversations here today, tomorrow, the next day, whatever,” Boone said. “But physically he’s doing really well.”

Return of DJ

DJ LeMahieu made his return to the lineup Saturday after missing three straight games with quadriceps tightness. Starting at third and leading off, he went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

“We’ll obviously pay close attention to it,” Boone said before the game. “But feel like he’s ready to go.”