Written by Jorge L. Ortiz at USAToday.com
Todd Frazier called it an “unorthodox swing.’’ A.J. Hinch described it as an “awkward swing.’’
More precisely, it was a Yankee Stadium swing.
Only two major league ballparks yielded more home runs this season than the New York Yankees’ home field, where they banged out 140 of their big league-leading 241. Frazier didn’t join the club until July 19, but it didn’t take him long to find the stadium’s sweet spot in right field.
That’s exactly where he directed a three-run shot Monday that set the Yankees on course for an 8-1 victory over the Houston Astros in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series, which might have just changed direction.
New York had lost the first two games by 2-1 scores and badly needed to revive a moribund offense that came in batting .200 for the series. Frazier accomplished that with a second-inning swing that was, well, not exactly cribbed from Ted Williams’ The Science of Hitting.
Reaching out for Charlie Morton’s 95 mph fastball on the outside and looking off-balance, Frazier still barreled the ball and sent it on a line over the right-field fence, a 365-foot drive that put the Yankees on top 3-0 while electrifying their fans and dugout. With one swing, they had scored one more run than in the previous two games combined.
“You don’t think it’s going just because of how unorthodox the swing was,’’ said Frazier, who hit 11 of his 27 homers for New York after coming over in a trade with the Chicago White Sox. “Guys throw really hard now. All you have to do is square it up in the right fashion, and that’s what I did.’’
So did Aaron Judge, who shook off his postseason slump – 19 strikeouts in 31 at-bats – by rifling a three-run homer that capped the Yankees’ five-run fourth, putting an end to any suspense in the game.
Judge’s shot to left field wasn’t exactly one of those majestic drives that became his trademark during a season when he set a rookie record with 52. The homer cut through the wind on a chilly night and traveled 371 feet into the first row of the bleachers, but it did follow one trend from the season. New York’s 39 three-run homers were five more than any other team had.
Of course, it helps to play half your games in a stadium rated by ESPN’s Ballpark Factors as the second most generous in the majors for the long ball.
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