Yankees hope Willie Calhoun, Jake Bauers can keep power on with top sluggers out vs. Rays
The Yankees' Willie Calhoun gestures as he runs the bases after hitting a home run during the seventh inning of a game against the Guardians on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium. Credit: AP/Frank Franklin II
The last-place Yankees will play the first-place Tampa Bay Rays starting Friday at Tropicana Field for the clubs' first meeting of the season.
The Yankees will not have big boppers Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton in the lineup. Both are injured.
In their places against righthanded pitching will be the kind of boppers — mini boppers, perhaps? — the Yankees are going to have to rely upon until Judge (next week) and Stanton (who knows?) return from the injured list.
Say hello to Willie Calhoun and Jake Bauers, both of whom homered in the Yankees’ 4-3, 10-inning victory over the Guardians at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday night.
Calhoun, a former top prospect with the Texas Rangers, had a solo home run — his second in two nights — off former AL Cy Young Award winner Shane Bieber in the fifth and the tying RBI single against top closer Emmanuel Clase in the ninth.
Bauers, who injured his knee on Saturday crashing into the leftfield wall in Texas while making a spectacular catch in his first inning as a Yankee, also homered off Bieber in the fifth and drew a key walk before pinch hitter Jose Trevino’s walk-off single in the 10th.
The ragtag Yankees (17-15) have won two in a row but trail the Rays (26-6) by nine games.
As general manager Brian Cashman said on Wednesday, “We're in a desperate mode right now. Fight for our lives in early May.”
Said shortstop-turned-outfielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa: “I think with the big guys out right now, we’ve got to find a way to manufacture runs. We can win ballgames different ways, try to get things rolling and play scrappy baseball [until] we get the big boys back.”
Just to confirm: The Yankees will be the “scrappy” team when they face the Rays this weekend.
“It’s a great opportunity,” Cashman said, “for somebody else to step up.”
On Wednesday, those somebodies were Calhoun and Bauers. Calhoun’s home run on Tuesday was his first in the majors since April 11, 2022. The squat 5-8, 205-pound, 28-year-old outfielder has a chance to grab the lefthanded designated hitter job in Stanton’s absence.
“Anytime you can come up and get hits that help the team win, it’s a nice boost for the club,” Calhoun said. “I feel like the energy was there the last few nights.”
Bauers’ blast in his first game back from the knee injury was his first since he hit one for Seattle on Sept. 19, 2021.
“It was pretty indescribable,” said Bauers, 27, who hit 11 home runs for Tampa in 2018 and 12 for Cleveland in 2019 but had just eight in the years since going into Wednesday. “I think I blacked out rounding the bases, so I’m really not sure what happened.”
Bauers hit nine home runs in 21 games for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The Yankees called him up on Saturday to provide some punch, and he started in Judge’s spot in right on Wednesday.
“I feel like I’ve been having quality at-bats all year,” Bauers said. “Everyone that’s close to me is just telling me nothing changes up here. Just trying to keep the same approach, same preparation, same work and keep it going.”
The Yankees have 12 players on the injured list, 10 of them key members of the roster. It was not immediately known if one or two more would have to be added before Friday’s series opener.
Harrison Bader and Oswald Peraza both left Wednesday’s game with injuries. Bader’s neck slammed into Kiner-Falefa’s side when both were sliding in a futile attempt to catch an RBI single in the top of the ninth. Peraza sprained his ankle stealing a base in the bottom of the ninth.
Red Sox game moved
ESPN announced that the June 11 Yankees-Red Sox game in the Bronx has been selected for “Sunday Night Baseball” with a 7 p.m. start.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
