Brett Gardner has become the Yankees’ everyday center fielder in Aaron Hicks’ absence, and for yet another season, Gardy has seen his role go from supposedly fourth outfielder to everyday player – Thursday being his 46th game and 35th start in the Yankees’ 56 games.
That noted, Gardner was hitting just .185 entering Thursday, every part of his slash line well below his previous career lows and his .235 slugging percentage less than half of the career-high .503 he put up when he hit 28 home runs in 2019.
Gardy will get the chance to work it out because the Yankees have little choice, but he knows he has to find a way to do so.
“For me it comes down to continuing to work and finding ways to get better, having more consistent and higher quality at-bats, and finding ways to get on base,” Gardner said Thursday morning. “I have to keep grinding out at-bats ad finding ways to help the team win, and not worry about anything else.”
“It’s probably just finding that good timing, starting with the fastball, and I think he’ll get there,” manager Aaron Boone added. “We’ve seen pockets where he’s started to click. He’s had some tough at-bats lately against some lefties, but I do feel like it’s in there for him to start clicking. It’s just a matter of getting timed up, and once he does that I think we’ll see a good run in him.”
One thing Gardner won’t pin his slump on: any potential cheating from pitchers around the league, which has become a huge hot-button issue once again as of late.
“Hitting is as hard now as it ever has been; every at-bat is a battle, because guys are throwing harder than ever, with better breaking balls and more breaking balls than ever,” Gardner said. “I don’t make any excuses as to what pitchers may or may not be doing. There’s 30 teams out there and we’re all facing the same pitching, so all that stuff works itself out.”
Nor, he says, is he the type to vocalize about something like that, publicly or privately.
“I’m more of a stand back and let things play out kind of guy. I think that’s something that will get taken care of one way or another, whether it be sooner or later, amongst the players or not,” Gardner said. “I know people like to make a lot out of it and it’s a widely-discussed issue, but I think it’ll get taken care of one way or another. For us, it’s important to go out there and focus on the things we can control, and for me, that’s putting together good at-bats no matter who we’re facing.”
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