Gio Urshela got his introduction to the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry not necessarily by choice, but by virtue of growing up as a baseball fan in Colombia.
“That’s the only games that they put on the TV in Colombia,” he said Thursday. “I always watched this.”
Now they’re all watching him.
Urshela got his initial firsthand taste of the rivalry in April, when he was still something of a stopgap at third base. But when the series begins Friday night in The Bronx, he will take the field as one of the big reasons why the Yankees are the ones being chased atop the AL East.
“It’s going to be a good experience for me,” Urshela said before the scheduled series opener was washed out at Yankee Stadium. “It’s always going to be a good series. Now being here, it’s going to be fun. It’s going to be an interesting series because we’re fighting to keep the team in first place, too.”
Urshela had started just five games at the hot corner when the Red Sox visited Yankee Stadium April 16-17, just 10 days after he had his contract purchased from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. DJ LeMahieu had gotten the majority of the starts there in Miguel Andujar’s absence, though Urshela was quick in welcoming himself to the rivalry — hitting a double and later robbing Mookie Betts of a hit in the first game of that series.
Now, Urshela will enter Friday batting .331 with an .855 OPS — including a .378 average with runners in scoring position — as the everyday third baseman.
With Didi Gregorius’ return on the horizon — potentially as early as next week — Urshela could see a slight dip in his playing time. Gleyber Torres will shift back to second base with LeMahieu returning to a true utility role around the infield, including starts at third base.
In the meantime, Urshela planned on continuing to ride his confidence at the plate.
“That’s something that I changed from other years,” Urshela said a day after crushing his third home run of the year in a 7-0 win over the Padres. “For me, that’s the key for what I’m doing right now, getting those kind of results.”
As for Yankees-Red Sox, Urshela is looking forward to playing his first game of the rivalry at Fenway Park in July. He has played there before with the Indians, but not in pinstripes.
“I was always watching Boston [growing up] … the stadium, the Green Monster, all that,” he said. “[I’m looking forward to seeing] how it feels to be a Yankee and playing over there.”
