Yankees' Aaron Boone talks to Josh Donaldson about hustling out of box
The Twins' Nick Gordon tags out Yankees third baseman Josh Donaldson (28) at second base during the first inning of a game on Monday at Yankee Stadium. Credit: AP/Noah K. Murray
Aaron Boone pulled Josh Donaldson aside for a quick word Monday after the third baseman didn’t hustle out of the box on a first-inning RBI single that should have been a double.
Donaldson drove in Aaron Judge with a shot off the wall in left but was thrown out at second as, off the bat, the third baseman, feeling the ball was gone, emerged from the box slow, which put him in position to get thrown out.
“Let's not let that happen,” Boone said Tuesday of his conversation with Donaldson.
The manager added: “I don't really worry about him from the game or hooked up [focused on the game] standpoint; he's locked in. Yeah, that's one of those, you’ve got to make sure [it’s a home run]. You better be sure.”
Donaldson, hitting .220 with 12 homers and a .684 OPS in 112 games, is in a 5-for-30 (.167) slide his last 10 games, with just one extra-base hit (a double) in that stretch.
DJ down again
The Yankees are trying to best figure out how to handle DJ LeMahieu, whom Boone did not plan to play Tuesday and was noncommittal about for Wednesday, and his injured right toe, which has clearly had an impact on the utility man.
“Determining whether a couple of days [off] kind of serve him well, as far as just taking a little bit of pressure off it,” Boone said of LeMahieu, who is in a 2-for-38 skid. “It's complicated talking with him, doctors, about what's the right course of action to get him to be at his best. It's kind of a day-by-day thing we're dealing with.”
Severino’s extra motivation
Luis Severino, slated to make a rehab start with Double-A Somerset Wednesday night at Hartford, said the opportunity to possibly face — and beat — the Astros in the playoffs has been one source of motivation for him as he’s worked his way back from a lat strain.
“100%,” Severino, who will be on a pitch count in the range of 70 in his rehab outing, said in the Stadium clubhouse Tuesday. “I think that’s the team to beat in the playoffs and I think with all of the history we have [with the Astros], we’ll have a little bit of a chip on our shoulders to try and be at our best.”
Pitching plans
Boone said Domingo German would start the first game of Wednesday’s doubleheader against the Twins and would be followed by Gerrit Cole in the second game.
