Aaron Boone sits Joey Gallo, Gleyber Torres against Steven Matz
Joey Gallo of the Yankees strikes out in the ninth inning against the Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium on Monday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Aaron Boone said on Monday that he would consider dropping slumping Joey Gallo in the lineup after Gallo went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts from the No. 2 hole against Toronto.
On Tuesday, Boone dropped Gallo, all right. All the way to the bench against Blue Jays lefthander Steven Matz.
It wasn't surprising, given that Gallo hits lefthanded. Perhaps more surprising was Boone sitting Gleyber Torres and playing switch hitter Andrew Velazquez at shortstop.
Or maybe nothing should be considered surprising, given the Yankees' offensive struggles. Their 5-1 loss to the Blue Jays on Tuesday night was their eighth loss in 10 games since their 13-game winning streak.
Also, the team is in a stretch of 20 games in row without a day off. So Boone is not going to play all of his regulars every single day — and he still strongly considers Gallo and Torres regulars.
Gallo was on the field more than four hours before the game taking extra batting practice.
He is hitting .130 with a 61 strikeouts in 123 at-bats in 35 games since joining the Yankees in a deadline deal.
"Hopefully reset him a little bit," Boone said. "I know him and [the hitting coaches] were going to want to work underneath today and [were] studying some different things and then took some things even out on the field against the velocity machine. So, yeah, hopefully just a day for him to kind of catch his breath a little bit and hopefully it's something that he can benefit from — from a really good work day today."
Before the game, Gallo told reporters: "I mean, obviously, I want to play well. Especially coming to a new team. But at the same time, it’s not the first time. It’s baseball. You’re going to struggle sometimes. Obviously working hard to get back to where I know I can be and help the team win. So it’s frustrating not winning games, but that’s part of baseball and I’ve just got to keep working through it and figure it out.
"I’m a high-strikeout guy. It’s not like I hit .300. I’m a walk guy, hit home runs. I want to be better than that, but that’s kind of the player I am. I’ve gone through streaks before. It’s just about going out and showing up every day and working and swinging at strikes and eventually that will click and things will start to go your way."
Brett Gardner started in left with Aaron Judge in center, Giancarlo Stanton in right and Luke Voit as the designated hitter against Matz.
With the injuries to Clint Frazier and Miguel Andujar — and even with a 28-man roster — the Yankees do not have another righthanded-hitting outfielder on the roster. So, for the second straight game, Boone started Gardner against a lefthander.
Gardner is hitting .213 for the season, but has been better vs. southpaws (.233). He had two hits against Matz on Tuesday night.
Torres, when he’s right, can feast on lefties. But he hasn’t been right at the plate or in the field since returning on Friday from a left thumb sprain.
Torres is 3-for-13 in four games since returning. He also committed careless errors on Sunday and Monday.
Boone again defended Torres’ defense — even as he started the better glove on Tuesday in Velazquez.
"I know Gleyber’s made a couple mistakes defensively the last couple of days," Boone said, "and has had some on the year. But I think it's important to look at the body of work that Gleyber’s put in this year defensively. It's been a lot of steady play. He's had some plays that the narrative kind of lasts on one play for the better part of a month. But if you look at the day-in-and-day-out body of work, I think he's been really steady for us."
Anthony Rieber covers sports media and business and professional sports (you know, games and trades and things). He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since Jan. 1, 2026.
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