Greg Bird’s issues — both on offense and with his glove — didn’t seem to be going away until he went deep to lead off the bottom of the eighth inning of the Yankees’ 11-6 win over the Blue Jays Saturday at the Stadium.
He was booed again after striking out in the second inning. Bird also failed to come up with a scoop on a throw from Didi Gregorius in the seventh on a grounder to the hole by Justin Smoak. Bird was 8-for-63 with 17 strikeouts since his previous home run before smacking his 10th of the season.
Aaron Boone insisted he didn’t see Bird’s struggles affect him mentally — and liked his approach Saturday even before his late blast.
“I thought I saw more aggression in the strike zone and eventually it manifested itself with that home run,’’ Boone said. “I don’t feel like for a week to 10 days we’ve seen that club-head speed through the zone. I felt like all day today, he was working to let that go. Even though he didn’t have results to that point, he had better swings and in the end was able to ride one out of here. You hope he can build on it.”
Giancarlo Stanton’s fourth-inning homer left him one shy of 300 for his career. He has also hit seven home runs in his past 12 games, despite playing with a tight left hamstring.
“It’s getting there,’’ Stanton said of the injury that has limited him to DH since August 7. “We’re going to have some NL games soon [in Miami], so I’ll have to jump out in right field, but it’s getting better.”
Asked if he would be ready to play the outfield in time for Tuesday’s series opener against the Marlins, Stanton said: “We’re going to get there … I’m going to run around test it and make sure it’s ready to go.”
Stanton was drilled by a Luis Santos fastball near his left shoulder in the eighth. That loaded the bases with one out and Stanton did not believe it was intentional.
Gleyber Torres took more strides in breaking out of his second-half slump. After going 3-for-33 with 11 strikeouts in eight games between having an extra-base hit, the second baseman doubled in Friday’s victory and had a pair of singles on Saturday. It was his first multi-hit game since Aug. 6 against the White Sox.
With Luis Severino still not resembling an ace in Saturday’s win, J.A. Happ’s importance to the rotation is growing even more important. The lefty will start Sunday against his former team Sunday. Happ is 3-0 with a 1.89 ERA in three starts as a Yankee since being traded by Toronto.
— Additional reporting by Fred Kerber
