Coming into Wednesday, the Yankees thought Anthony Volpe had been hitting the ball hard lately but was just not getting rewarded for it.
How’s a grand slam for an overdue prize?
Volpe finished off the Yankees’ offensive attack Wednesday afternoon by crushing his first career grand slam in an 11-3 win over the Athletics in The Bronx.
The rookie shortstop’s fourth home run of the season traveled 419 feet to center field and blew the game open in the fifth inning.
“The kid’s got juice, there’s no doubt about it,” Harrison Bader said. “He’s got a short, quick, intentional swing. He’s been hitting into a lot of — I don’t want to say bad luck, but hitting the ball really hard. … So to get one with that kind of pop is awesome. We love to see that, especially when it puts up four runs for us.”
Over his previous 11 games, before Wednesday Volpe was 7-for-44 (.159) with a .491 OPS.
That included five hard-hit balls (all with an exit velocity of 95-plus mph) on Tuesday night and only having a triple to show for it.
But Volpe kept his poise and came to the plate with two outs in the fifth inning after A’s reliever Rico Garcia had just walked back-to-back batters to load the bases.
That prompted Garcia to throw a first-pitch 96 mph fastball down the middle and Volpe didn’t miss.
“I was expecting for him to be aggressive to me,” Volpe said. “So regardless of what pitch, I wanted to stay ready. … I was just pumped to get those runs in for the team.”
The 22-year-old Volpe became the third-youngest Yankee to hit a grand slam, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, trailing only Mickey Mantle (three times) and Melky Cabrera.
Throughout the season, the Yankees have appreciated Volpe’s approach at the plate, which has largely stayed the same regardless of the results he was getting.
That was a big part of the reason the team decided he was ready to break camp in the big leagues, believing that he would remain steady instead of riding the roller coaster that inevitably comes with any rookie season.
Volpe finished Wednesday batting .205 with a .648 OPS, but he has made his impact felt.
“Very few people can take it out to dead center like that and know off the bat it’s going to be gone,” Aaron Judge said. “It’s impressive. He’s been hitting the ball hard all season.
“I think the average you see up there isn’t right. He swings the bat well, he has a great approach. Just been a little unlucky. So I was pretty happy he got rewarded for that little granny right there.”