NEW YORK (AP) — Gleyber Torres sent a fastball soaring, started jogging toward first base and raised his right arm about the time a young boy in the first row of the right field short porch caught the ball on the fly.
Torres followed his go-ahead, three-run homer with a two-run single and led the surging New York Yankees over the Toronto Blue Jays 5-3 Wedesday for their 15th win in 17 games.
“My swing is getting better and better,” Torres said. “I think confidence is back, and that is the most important for me.”
A heralded phenom who is just 25, Torres came up to the Yankees in 2018 and became an All-Star in each of his first two seasons, hitting 62 home runs. But he slumped for the next two seasons, totaling just 12 long balls.
“I got too many opportnities to do things for my team and I missed. I failed,” Torres said.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone benched Torres for six of this season’s first 25 games, including opening day, when Torres’ tying sacrifice fly in the 10th helped the Yankees beat Boston.
Torres had a game-ending single against Cleveland on April 23, a walk-off home run in the opener of Sunday’s doubleheader against Texas and drove in all the runs in the series finale against the Blue Jays.
Torres’ fourth-inning homer off José Berríos on on 0-2 fastball ended an 0-for-11 skid and gave New York a 3-1 lead. After Toronto closed, Torres singled in the sixth against Trevor Richards.
Torres has 16 RBIs in his last 15 games and four home runs in his last 11. Overall, he is batting .222 with 18 RBIs and five homers — four to the opposite field
“I think it’s a little bit mechanical. I think it’s a little bit maturity, I think it’s a little bit work and routine,” said Boone, who cited Torres for getting his hips and lower body better aligned this season. “He’s had…
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