BOSTON — It’s been a season for the ages to date for Aaron Decide, who leads the league in just about each offensive class and has drawn comparisons to everybody from Babe Ruth to Ted Williams and Barry Bonds.
However over three video games in Boston, Decide wasn’t a lot of an element exterior of his one hefty swing towards Garrett Crochet within the ninth inning Friday that despatched that recreation into further innings.
That proved to be Decide’s lone hit of the sequence, as he went 0-for-4 with one other three strikeouts in Sunday’s 2-0 loss at Fenway Park, with the Purple Sox finishing the sweep.
His final probability to make one other influence got here within the eighth, when the Yankees had runners on first and second and one out and Garrett Whitlock entered.
The proper-hander received Decide to floor into an inning-ending double play to finish their solely actual risk of the sport.
The usually ultra-disciplined Decide had a uncommon few video games when he allowed himself to chase pitches out of the zone.
“You’ve received to swing at strikes,’’ Decide stated. “It often helps any hitter once you swing at strikes.”
He pulled a slider that was barely exterior on the double play; whiffed on a sinker that was in and down from Brayan Bello within the sixth; swung at a four-seamer that was a bit exterior within the third and a cutter from Bello that was low and away in his first at-bat.
Bello and Whitlock weren’t the one ones to get Decide at Fenway Park, as he went 1-for-12 with the homer and 9 strikeouts — fanning thrice in every recreation.
“It’s onerous, very onerous,” Boston supervisor Alex Cora stated of pitching to Decide. “We noticed it final weekend [in The Bronx]. We noticed it all through the season. He’s so good at what he does, however we used our fastballs in the best spots and received some swings and misses. It was a kind of weekends.”
Throughout their earlier sequence at Yankee Stadium, Decide had a pair of three-hit video games.
“All through the years, we’ve been aggressive with him,’’ Cora stated. “Generally he will get us [and] generally we do a very good job with him. It’s at all times enjoyable to compete towards the very best and, for me, he’s the very best within the enterprise proper now.”
There’s no denying that, as Decide has constructed on what he’s finished over the previous a number of years and is bettering it to date this yr.
However that doesn’t imply there gained’t be bumps within the street.
Maybe the one alarming side of Decide’s off weekend is that it got here with a lot of the remainder of the lineup not producing both.
“You’re taking some hacks attempting to make one thing occur as an alternative of taking your stroll in the event that they’re gonna give it to you,’’ stated Decide, who’s gone with out a stroll in 4 consecutive video games for the primary time this yr.
And nobody else picked him up, as nobody else did something towards the Purple Sox within the sweep, both. On Sunday, the Yankees completed with simply 5 hits.
“They pitched him robust,’’ Aaron Boone stated. “He had a large hit to power further innings the primary night time. That’s baseball. It’s why guys don’t hit .450 with 900 homers. You’re gonna have a weekend the place they execute and so they get you. … Hitting is tough. It’s onerous to be excellent.”
That’s true, however the Yankees can’t afford to be overly reliant on Decide.
With out him producing, they scored simply 4 runs in three video games at Fenway towards a Purple Sox crew that immediately has life within the AL East.
