Andrew McCutchen’s hot streak (8-for-21, .381) combined with Aaron Judge’s return from the DL turned Brett Gardner into a fourth outfielder. Being in a 5-for-23 (.217) slump didn’t help the longest tenured Yankee, either.
Nevertheless, manager Aaron Boone says don’t count the 35-year-old Gardner out of action just yet.
“I still see him playing a lot for us, probably be in there [Friday],’’ Boone said of Gardner, who wasn’t in the lineup for a third straight game Thursday.
“I feel like the final games we are down to he is going to play a lot and he will start a lot,’’ Boone said before the Yankees’ 11-6 loss to the AL East-clinching Red Sox. “I have to give Aaron Judge a day off, I want to give McCutchen a day, I want to give [Giancarlo] Stanton a day and [Aaron] Hicks a day.’’
Should Gardner get hot Boone left the door open for a return to the lineup.
“He can play himself into a more significant role than you may think sitting here right now,’’ Boone said of Gardner. who since Aug. 1 has played in 42 games (39 starts) and batted .206 (32-for-155) with a .275 on-base percentage. For the season, the slump dropped Gardner’s batting average to .237. That is a far cry from the .264 career mark he started the season with and even further from the .347 career on-base percentage.
Home runs have been the Yankees’ calling card seemingly forever, hence the nickname “Bronx Bombers.’’
So, it’s not surprising the Yankees used Luke Voit’s and Stanton’s home runs Thursday night to reach 247 for the season, which is the seventh highest single-season total in major league history. The 1997 Mariners hold the all-time mark with 264.
Voit’s second-inning, two-run homer was his 10th homer as a Yankee and gave them a dozen players with at least 10 homers.
The Yankee Stadium crowd of 47,351 was the largest this season and the 23rd sellout. … The 4 hours, 2-minute game was the Yankees’ longest nine-inning game of the year.
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