Anthony Volpe rewards Hal Steinbrenner’s faith thanks to batting-stance tweak
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Hours after being given a vote of confidence from Hal Steinbrenner, Anthony Volpe delivered a few more of the “winning plays” that his manager keeps preaching about.
A trip home to New Jersey on Monday’s off day may be to thank.
The scuffling rookie shortstop contributed a pair of doubles — one legit, one due to a generous scoring decision — and drove in a run in the Yankees’ 7-6 win over the Mets on Tuesday night at Citi Field.
Volpe also had another solid night in the field after Steinbrenner had reiterated earlier in the day that the Yankees had held “zero conversations” about sending the 22-year-old to Triple-A for a reset.
“I told Anthony at the end of spring training, ‘You are the starting shortstop of the New York Yankees. This isn’t a three-week trial,’” Steinbrenner said at the MLB owners’ meetings. “So [he’s] going to be that, through the ups and downs.”
Volpe said he had been out of the loop on the comments but appreciated them.
Anthony Volpe belts the second of his two doubles in the sixth inning of the Yankees’ 7-6 win over the Mets.Jason Szenes for the New York Post
“But at the end of the day, I gotta earn it every day,” Volpe said after his first taste of the Subway Series. “Nothing really changes from my end. I understand I have a job to do.
“I just want to help the team win in any way possible.”
Steinbrenner had mentioned that Volpe would have to make adjustments and he immediately did so on Tuesday night, featuring a slightly more closed stance at the plate.
The tweak came after he went home to Watchung, N.J. on Monday and hung out with some former Double-A Somerset teammates, including catching prospect Austin Wells.
They were watching some old videos of games in which they hit back-to-back homers when Volpe and Wells both noticed something different.
“A little stuff with my stance and how I set up the hip,” Volpe said. “But it was so small. We both kind of noticed it and started talking about it. I think we both took a lot away from it.”
Volpe enacted the slight adjustment and said he “definitely” felt better at the plate on Tuesday while going 2-for-4 with a fly out to the warning track in his last at-bat.
He also roped an RBI double down the left-field line in his second at-bat against Max Scherzer, part of a five-run Yankees rally in the fourth inning.
“It’s just kind of what I’ve always done,” Volpe said of the closed stance. “Realizing that one way or another you kind of get away from it was obviously frustrating. But it’s nice to know that what I was doing and wasn’t getting results wasn’t natural, what I always do.
“So kind of getting back to where I’ve been and where I feel comfortable. Whatever happens from there, I’ll take it.”
Anthony Volpe belts a double during the sixth inning of the Yankees’ win.Robert Sabo for NY Post
Volpe entered Tuesday batting .186 with nine home runs and a .605 OPS in 67 games.
After a solid first month in the big leagues, his strikeout rate had increased and his walk rate had decreased, leading to some questions about whether Volpe might be better served getting his rhythm back with a stint at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre — especially with shortstop Oswald Peraza tearing it up there.
But the Yankees believe that allowing Volpe to work through the growing pains at the major league level will serve him well in the long run — and he continued to back that up on Tuesday.
“My feel and my belief in Anthony is that the cream is going to rise to the top,” manager Aaron Boone said before the game. “I believe in his ability and the person that he’s going to be an outstanding player in this game. We’ve seen signs of that already all year.
“He’s had his fair share of struggles, but he’s also been in the middle of a lot of winning and having a role in that.
“When we made the decision to go with Anthony at the start of the season, it wasn’t that we thought he was just going to light the world on fire right away. We expected that there’d be some ups and downs.
“But one of the things we’re betting on is the person, too, knowing he’d be able to handle some of the inevitable adversity.”