The Yankees’ seven-game winning streak came to an end on Wednesday night, but a silver lining was a second straight multi-hit game from Aaron Hicks.
Meanwhile, though he wasn’t in the starting lineup in Wednesday’s loss, Joey Gallo also had a multi-hit game his last time out, and both are off to promising starts in June after posting brutal numbers overall so far this season.
In his last six games, totaling 23 plate appearances, Gallo is batting an even .300 with an .891 OPS, and posting a hard hit rate of 55.6 percent, up nearly 13 percent from his brutal May.
Perhaps the most noticeable change has been with Gallo’s balls in play, which have long been criticized given his tendencies as strictly a pull hitter. But after posting a pull percentage of 73.7 percent in May, that number is down to 33.3 percent, and 55.6 percent of his batted balls this month have been hit to the opposite field, per FanGraphs.
Gallo’s quality of contact has also been better. His ground ball rate is down from 37 percent to 11 percent, which would be the lowest monthly mark of his career if he maintained that pace. As a result, his line drive percentage is up 10 percent, and his soft contact is down 10 percent.
Now, on to Hicks. He had two infield singles in Wednesday’s loss to the Twins, and is now batting over .400 with an identical slugging percentage over his last seven games, but more importantly, he has cut way back on his strikeouts. Hicks was getting punched out a startling 29 percent in May, double his mark in April, but so far in June, that number is down to 7.4 percent. He’s hitting 40 percent of his batted balls right back up the middle, and while some of his outcomes have been lucky given those infield singles, the fact that he is avoiding those strikeouts is an encouraging sign, as he’s only fanned twice in the last seven games compared to four walks.
Yes, these are very small sample sizes, but the Yanks are clearly not giving up on Gallo and Hicks, and need them to be productive so Aaron Judge can get some days off and not have to man center field as much, so any signs of hope that the two may be turning things around should be seen as encouraging.
It's easy to forget that both players have proven themselves as productive in the past. Did Gallo need more time to adjust to his new surroundings in New York? Did Hicks need more time to get back to 100 percent from his wrist surgery last season? Mark Teixeira, also a switch hitter, didn’t need as much time when he came back from an identical surgery in 2014, but everyone recovers differently. Perhaps this is the beginning of brighter days for two of the most maligned Yankees, or it could be a blip on the radar preceding another frustrating swoon. We’ll see.
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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