So … the Yankees just mash great pitchers in the playoffs now? After a regular season in which their offense could fall asleep for days and even weeks at a time?

How exactly is this happening?

Aaron Boone and his hitters have tossed around the phrase “swing decisions,” by which they mean a combination of aggressiveness and patience. It’s about studying pitchers closely enough to recognize when their offerings are likely to sail wide of the strike zone, and remaining ready to pounce on a fastball that catches too much plate or a breaking ball that hangs.

It’s easier to plan this than to execute it, of course -- the whole point of a good breaking ball is that it often looks like a strike until at the last moment it isn’t -- but the Yankees have shown remarkable focus during their postseason at-bats so far.

Last week, they deployed this approach in mauling Cleveland ace Shane Bieber, who will soon win the American League Cy Young Award. Like Bieber, Tampa Bay’s Blake Snell -- a Cy Young winner himself -- is a breaking ball specialist. Their fastballs are good, but their off-speed stuff is what makes them stars.

What happens when hitters refuse to chase their breaking balls? Bieber and Snell are forced to throw too many pitches and suffer greatly for a modest number of mistakes.

The Yankees lineup has always had the talent to make the type of swing decisions we’ve seen over the past week. This is what Boone meant last year when he screamed at umpire Brennan Miller that his hitters were “savages in that box.”

Now they appear to have the focus and determination, too -- along with a certain collective vibe that they’re suddenly building together.

“We know what’s at stake,” Giancarlo Stanton said. “Everyone in there knows that we have a job to do, and what’s going to make us successful and what’s not. There is a plan in place. It is difficult to always execute it, but as long as you understand it and get it done down the line -- and I think if you see the guy ahead of you get it done, that’s another extra boost when you step in there. And that’s what we’re doing.”

Here’s a close look at how the Yanks beat Snell in the first game of the division series (spoiler: It’s pretty much how they defeated Bieber in the wild card round):

DJ LeMahieu’s at-bat in the first inning

LeMahieu is the king of good swing decisions, rarely making himself look silly by flailing at a pitch that he should have laid off. Leading off this game, he made Snell empty nearly his entire toolbox, an indication of how hard the Yankees would make the lefty work.

After falling behind 0-2, LeMahieu would not allow himself to be put away. He took a fastball, fouled off a fastball, took a slider, took a fastball, fouled off a fastball and fouled off a slider. On the ninth pitch, Snell gave in and offered a fastball down the middle. LeMahieu drove it to center for a single.

“I think he felt the weight of everything, of the grinded out at-bats,” Boone later said of Snell.

Aaron Judge’s at-bat in the first inning

Judge followed LeMahieu by making an out, but doing it in a way that made clear the Yankees were sticking with their Bieber plan. After fouling off a 1-2 fastball, Judge sat on two straight curveballs -- no easy task, as Snell has one of the best curves in the league.

That restraint kept the at-bat alive and enabled Judge to make contact on a 3-2 pitch. He grounded out, but moved LeMahieu to third (he’d gone to second on a wild pitch). LeMahieu later scored on a sacrifice fly, the Yankees’ first run.

Stanton’s at-bat in the fourth inning

The book on Stanton has always been that you can get him to chase the off-speed pitch low and away. In reality, Stanton has been working in earnest to iron out this glitch since 2019. Injuries have obscured that progression, but there have been many times over the past two postseasons when Stanton’s swing decisions are as deliberate as nearly anyone’s.

This was evident in the fourth inning when Stanton walked. The fourth pitch of that at-bat was a fastball low and away, which Stanton took for a strike. The sixth pitch was a curveball -- ball four.

Stanton’s grand slam in the ninth inning was the reward of an improved approach, but the walk in the fourth was proof of it.

Kyle Higashioka’s at-bat in the fifth inning

The Yankees’ catcher and nine-hole hitter was on board with the plan, too. In the fourth, he waited out two curveballs. When Snell’s 1-1 fastball caught too much plate, Higashioka dispatched it over the left field wall for a home run.

Judge’s at-bat in the fifth inning

Two batters after Higashioka’s homer, Judge enacted the aggressive part of the offensive game plan. Snell hung a first-pitch curveball, and Judge did not hesitate, driving it to left for a home run.

Popular in the Community