As the New York Yankees were surging last week, Cody Bellinger was slumping.
Now he is among the Yankees putting up some big numbers over their past five games.
Bellinger will attempt to deliver more clutch hits on Wednesday night as the Yankees host the Texas Rangers and seek their sixth straight victory.
Bellinger endured a 4-for-29 slump from April 22-29 as the Yankees won six of eight games. During New York’s current winning streak, Bellinger is 10-for-19 with two home runs and 11 RBIs.
The Yankees outscored opponents 46-14 during their past five games and opened the series with a 7-4 win on Tuesday night.
“I think we’ve been able to do it a number of different ways,” New York’s Paul Goldschmidt said after starting at first base for the second straight game in place of Ben Rice (hand). “Obviously there’s been homers, (but) we’ve done with small ball and hits.”
Bellinger hit an RBI double in the first inning after the Yankees trailed by three runs. He added a two-run double in the seventh after Ryan McMahon belted a tying two-run homer in the second inning and Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit a tiebreaking shot off Jacob deGrom in the sixth.
“He’s just swinging the bat so well right now, big time at-bat,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of Bellinger, who also is hitting .355 (11-for-31) with runners in scoring position this season.
Texas, which has lost six of its past eight games, finished with 10 hits but did little after scoring three times in the first inning.
“We just couldn’t capitalize after that,” Texas manager Skip Schumaker said after his team stranded 12 runners on base and went 3-for-13 with runners in scoring position.
“We had bases loaded a few times and the right guys up that we felt good about.”
Josh Jung had three hits before striking out with the bases loaded in the eighth inning. He is hitting .400 (20-for-50) during a 13-game hitting streak.
Corey Seager was hitless in four at-bats and is 4-for-31 in his past eight contests, dropping his average to .206.
Brandon Nimmo was held out of the lineup due to a lingering right hamstring injury he initially sustained last Wednesday against the Yankees. Nimmo is day-to-day and has avoided going on the injured list so far.
After deGrom allowed six runs on Tuesday, right-hander Nathan Eovaldi (3-4, 4.76 ERA) will face the Yankees for his second straight outing. Last Wednesday, Eovaldi allowed four hits in seven scoreless innings; he also threw a season-high 102 pitches. He struck out Aaron Judge twice and induced a pair of double plays.
Eovaldi is 7-6 with a 3.05 ERA in 25 games (22 starts) against the Yankees, with whom he pitched in 2015-16. As a visiting player, the right-hander is 1-5 with a 3.97 ERA in 13 career games (12 starts) at Yankee Stadium.
Right-hander Will Warren (4-0, 2.39) will attempt to join Cam Schlittler as the second Yankees starter to reach five wins. Since lasting 3 2/3 innings in a no-decision against the Los Angeles Angels on April 13, Warren is 3-0 with a 2.33 ERA in his past three starts with 26 strikeouts in those games.
Warren allowed two earned runs or fewer 22 times last season and has done so in each start this year. On Friday, he allowed one earned run on three hits in 6 1/3 innings during a 7-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles.
Warren is 1-0 in two career starts against Texas and has not allowed a run in 10 2/3 innings while totaling 15 strikeouts.
–Field Level Media
