Jasson Dominguez hits his first homer at the Stadium as Yankees win fifth straight
Jasson Dominguez of the Yankees celebrates his third-inning home run against the Tigers at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Jasson Dominguez is on the board in the Bronx, too.
The heralded rookie, who made quite an impression last weekend after his call to the big leagues Friday — hitting two home runs in the Yankees’ three-game sweep of the Astros — hit his first career homer at Yankee Stadium Wednesday night against the Tigers.
It was one of three hits for the 20-year-old in a 4-3 victory in front of 30,673 at the Stadium for the Yankees’ fifth straight win.
“It’s very apparent he’s a natural hitter,” said Clarke Schmidt, who improved to 9-8 with a 4.54 ERA after allowing three runs and five hits over 6 1⁄3 innings in which he struck out six. “He seems very professional and seems like he kind of has that ‘it’ factor.”
Though their playoff odds remain long, the Yankees (70-69) have won eight of their last nine games and 10 of their last 14 to climb within 6 ½ games of the AL’s third wild-card spot. They were 10 ½ games out as of Aug. 31 when they promoted Dominguez and catching prospect Austin Wells.
After grounding out to short in his first at-bat, Dominguez, in the third spot in the batting order, led off the third by blistering a 2-and-1, 96-mph fastball from righthander Beau Brieske into the seats in right to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead.
Brieske came on in the second after Tigers starter Matt Manning was forced from the game after he suffered a fractured right foot. He was hit there by a 119-mph liner off the bat of Giancarlo Stanton to end the first.
“The rightfield wall,” Dominguez said with a smile of what he liked best about hitting at the Stadium.
Of hitting his first homer at the Stadium, Dominguez said: “It means a lot. Special.”
Dominguez’s homer, which came off the bat at 110.2 mph and traveled 383 feet, gave the Yankees a 2-1 lead. It also gave Dominguez three homers in his first five career games, allowing him to join Shelley Duncan as the only other player in franchise history to accomplish that feat. Duncan, who did it in 2007, currently manages the club’s Triple-A affiliate, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Dominguez became the third Yankee in the last 43 years to hit safely in each of his first five games, joining Oscar Azocar in 1990 and Hideki Matsui in 2003. Dominguez, now 7-for-21 with three homers, a double and five RBIs in his first five games, also singled sharply to left in the fourth and singled to center in the sixth.
“Confidence,” Aaron Boone said of what has allowed Dominguez to get off to a fast start. “I think he knows he’s a good player, but I think he’s got the right level of humility with that, too. There’s just an easy way about him . . . ”
The Yankees took a 3-1 lead later in the third on an RBI double by rookie Oswald Peraza. Gleyber Torres’ RBI single in the fourth brought in Aaron Judge, who had doubled, to make it 4-1.
Schmidt retired 16 straight after allowing Kerry Carpenter’s RBI single in the first, but was touched up for two runs in the seventh.
Wandy Peralta left with the bases loaded and two outs in the eighth, replaced by Bay Shore’s Greg Weissert. Weissert struck out Matt Vierling swinging at a 95-mph fastball. Clay Holmes pitched a perfect ninth for his 18th save.
“It’s been a long year,” said Weissert, who appeared in his first big-league game since Aug. 18. “It was a good situation for me to come into and it feels good having got the job done.”
Trainer’s room
Righty Keynan Middleton, who has pitched well since the Yankees acquired him from the White Sox at the trade deadline – posting a 0.68 ERA in 11 games – was placed on the injured list Wednesday with right shoulder inflammation. Middleton, a free agent after the season, said he hopes the stint is a short one and that he’ll be able to pitch again before the end of the regular season. Lefthander Matt Krook, who had three previous brief stints with the Yankees this season, was recalled from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Krook had a 0.92 ERA in 23 relief appearances this year with Scranton.
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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