TORONTO — For the primary time this season, Aaron Boone dropped Anthony Volpe into the nine-hole on Tuesday.
Whereas Volpe hit two huge dwelling runs Saturday within the Yankees’ comeback win over the Braves, the shortstop has largely been scuffling on the plate over the previous month-plus, a stretch during which he has moved additional down the lineup.
Volpe, who was pinch-hit for by Ben Rice within the ninth inning of Monday’s loss, entered Tuesday batting .136 (15-for-110) with a .480 OPS over his final 31 video games.
That left him batting .214 with a .680 OPS on the season.
Earlier than the skid started, he was persistently hitting fifth or sixth — although that was when the Yankees had been nonetheless with out Giancarlo Stanton in the course of their lineup — however he has spent the previous few weeks batting seventh or eighth earlier than shifting to ninth because the Yankees confronted Blue Jays right-hander Max Scherzer.
As an alternative of getting Jorbit Vivas bat ninth, Boone bumped him as much as eighth to stack three left-handed hitters in a row (Rice, Austin Wells and Vivas).
Usually, Boone prefers to unfold out his left-handed bats, however he had six within the lineup in opposition to Scherzer.
Volpe batted ninth 9 instances final season and 32 instances as a rookie.
