With his two home runs sparking a Yankees rally in Thursday's 8-4 win over the Orioles, Gleyber Torres joined Yankees lore.
Writes ESPN's Coley Harvey, Torres became the youngest player in franchise history to go 4-for-4 or better since Derek Jeter, and became the fourth-youngest player to have four hits and four RBIs in a game since 1920. The only Yankees who were younger: Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and Lou Gehrig.
"Gleyber Day. It was impressive," outfielder Aaron Judge said, according to Harvey. "He came up big in certain situations where we needed someone to come up with a big hit for us. He was the catalyst of this win for us."
While Judge started the year on a six-game hitting streak, he went 0-for-5 with four strikeouts on Thursday. And despite hitting 52 homers as a rookie and 27 in an injury-shortened 2018 season, he has yet to homer.
But Torres picked the Yankees up in a game in which they trailed 3-0 after the first inning.
His first homer, off Alex Cobb in the third inning, was a 400-foot shot to left field that cut New York's deficit to 3-1.
"He's got a great approach at the plate," Judge said of Torres, 22. "He goes up there with a plan. You don't see him up there too many times just free swinging. He usually comes up there with a plan, a pitch he's going to attack, and he usually comes away with a pretty good at-bat."
His second homer of the day highlighted a four-run, two-out, sixth-inning rally.
Gary Sanchez's two-out solo homer off Cobb made it a 4-2 game. The Orioles then brought in Mike Wright, who gave up a 2-2 single to Greg Bird.
With Torres on deck, D.J. LeMahieu worked the count full, even fooling Torres into thinking he drew a walk on ball 3. Instead, LeMahieu singled on the next pitch to put runners on the corners for Torres. Then Torres turned on an 0-2 fastball for a 390-foot home run to left-center field that made it 5-4.
Gleyber Torres wanted to hit, a breakdown. pic.twitter.com/QPS2y4gbWo
- Jomboy (@Jomboy_) April 4, 2019
"We needed Gleyber to have a big day, and he did, and that was a huge lift for our team," said Luke Voit, who added a three-run home run in the ninth inning to help the Yankees snap a two-game losing streak.
With injuries to Troy Tulowitzki, Giancarlo Stanton, Miguel Andujar and Aaron Hicks impacting New York's lineup, Torres said he and other players have had to step up.
"We know it's a lot of injuries, but it's part of the game," Torres said. "We are a really good team, we are really good guys, we can do the job and we just try to refocus."
Added manager Aaron Boone: "It was nice to break through with a couple of big hits, big hits that happened to be home runs. That really energized the guys a little bit and allowed us to exhale a little bit."
