Anthony Rizzo had attempted drastic measures in the past few days to finally snap out of a two-month hitting funk, from wearing no batting gloves to the plate Saturday “for the first time in years” to changing his walk-up music on Sunday.
Whatever the impetus, the Yankees’ massively slumping first baseman enjoyed his first four-hit game of the season — and finally belted his first home run in more than two months — in a series-sweeping 8-5 win over the Royals at the Stadium.
“It’s just a different perspective on the game that I have now. It’s easy to look at it and say I’m drowning and I’m in the water, but I’m on the boat just waiting for the winds to pick up and the sails to set,” the 33-year-old Rizzo said after the game. “You gotta have fun with it. I think the reaction from the dugout and the guys shows through a down [time], you gotta try to find highs as far as keeping yourself up and staying out of it.
“Today, it definitely was a big step in the right direction.”
As Rizzo mentioned, his teammates typically gave him the silent treatment in the dugout after his fourth-inning solo blast to right field off Royals starter Jordan Lyles, his first in 188 plate appearances and 167 at-bats since he last went deep on May 20 against the Reds.
“No question, when you’re going through it, It’s not easy. It’s not fun,” Aaron Boone said. “But he’s got a lot of support in that room.
“And again, everything points to we should be able to get that out [of Rizzo], with the physical attributes he still possesses. So it was a good day for him, excited for what happened.”
The Yankees’ game-ops people even played Mase’s “Welcome Back” as he circled the bases. Rizzo also acknowledged that he switched to Taylor Swift’s “… Ready For It?” as his new walk-up song.
“Taylor Swift, it’s her summer, really. She’s helping the economy every city she goes,” Rizzo joked.
It hasn’t been Rizzo’s or the Yankees’ summer, but there’s still time if he and the rest of the lineup can continue to produce after plating 18 runs the past three games against Kansas City, with captain Aaron Judge (toe) getting closer to a return from the injured list.
“You learn from the ebbs and flows of this game and really just going through it, going through the ups and downs,” said Rizzo, who ended an 0-for-20 skid with a single on Saturday. “It comes and goes no matter what, no matter how well you think it’s going or how bad, it usually evens out, so just stay the course.”
Rizzo, who also had two singles and an RBI double, added that several players were talking before the game about mechanics and their approaches with new hitting coach Sean Casey, who replaced Dillon Lawson after the All-Star break, and his holdover assistants.
“I love Casey, he and I have been friends for a long time,” Rizzo said. “So it’s the old-school baseball mind and it blends so well with the new school. … We have so many good baseball minds in here. Just talking through feel, mechanics, sometimes something clicks.
“I think it’s just being in the right position to hit and then you got a couple of hits and you start getting more belief and that you feel right again. You just want to keep that feeling bottled up and never lose it.”