PHILADELPHIA — Nick Swisher was crushed when he found out he wasn’t playing in Game 2. But, in the end, it turned out to be pretty beneficial.
Swisher said, after his heroics in the Yankees’ 8-5 victory in Game 3 last night, that when he was benched on Thursday and replaced in right field by Jerry Hairston Jr., it “was heartbreaking.”
Thing was, though, he thinks he got a good break.
“Skip [Joe Girardi] sat me down the other day and said, ‘Hey, just relax. I want you to just watch this game, enjoy this game,’ ” Swisher said. “And then we talked about some stuff after the game. But I think it really helped me mentally, not necessarily physically because right now you’re such on Cloud Nine because you’re playing in the World Series and you don’t really feel anything.
“But it was nice for my head to just rest and enjoy that game, and especially for us to win, that was great.”
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Last night, Swisher delivered, breaking out of his postseason slump (.114 average, no homers) with a rally-starting double and an insurance-providing home run.
“I think tonight just really, really turned things around for me,” Swisher said.
In reinserting Swisher into the lineup, Girardi said before the game that not only has Swisher been the Yankees’ regular right fielder, but he insisted that Hairston Jr.’s past success against Game 2 starter Pedro Martinez was the reason behind that night’s switch. Girardi also said he liked Swisher’s recent at-bats.
In those two games, however, Swisher went a combined 1-for-6 with two strikeouts. Then last night he flied out in his first at-bat. But in the fifth, with the Yankees trailing 3-2, Swisher led off with a double, sparking a three-run rally that put the Yanks up for good. Then, just to make sure, he drilled a solo homer in the sixth inning, giving the Yanks a three-run lead.