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April is in the books now, and another Yankees victory brought a most interesting grade from one of the teachers to one of the pupils.
Eduardo Nunez’s single and two doubles helped the Yankees outlast the awful Astros, 7-4, at Yankee Stadium, giving Derek Jeter’s replacement a ghastly .203 batting average, .296 on-base percentage and .246 slugging percentage for the first month.
“If there’s any importance to this month for him, it’s not hitting. It’s about defense,” Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long said after the game. “So honestly, the fact that he’s not hitting is a non-factor to me. I’m not concerned about it. I’m not worried about it. My main concern, I think everybody in this organization’s concern, was that he played solid defense.”
The new month starts today, and if Nunez could combine his improved defense with league-average offense from the shortstop position, then the ailing Yankees — who kicked off business yesterday by placing Kevin Youkilis (back) on the disabled list — would have themselves another sorely needed asset.
Nunez’s spring-training work with infield coach Mick Kelleher has paid off considerably. It was telling last night that, as Hiroki Kuroda struggled something awful early in the game, you sensed no dread among the few folks in the ballpark (announced paid crowd of 34,301) when Houston hit the ball to Nunez in key spots. He threw out Chris Carter at first to end the initial frame with runners at first and third, and the visitors left the bases loaded in the second when Nunez fielded Jose Altuve’s grounder and relayed it to Robinson Cano at second base.
These weren’t Gold Glove plays. Yet the bar had been set so low for Nunez, based on his defensive struggles last season, that he is earning acclaim simply for being competent. He now has three errors in 187 innings. Last year, while spending most of the season in the minor leagues, he committed seven miscues in 200 1/3₃ innings. While the advanced metrics don’t think much of Nunez’s performance so far, anyone watching the Yankees regularly would agree that he covers more ground than Jeter.
“I feel better defensively,” Nunez said. “I keep working to get better.”
On this homestand, Long made a second run at Nunez in an effort to pick up his offense. An effort in spring training to show the 25-year-old that he was standing too tall in the box, not using his legs, didn’t take. Only when Long arranged for Nunez to see video of himself now juxtaposed against video of himself last year did it hit him.
“I was surprised,” Nunez said. I didn’t even know I did that.”
The results hadn’t been instant, yet Long liked what he was seeing, choosing to throw out Nunez’s tough Sunday effort against knuckleballer R.A. Dickey. And then came last night. With an emphasis on using the whole field, Nunez singled through the shortstop hole in the second inning, doubled to left-center in the sixth and poked his second double to right field in the eighth, coming home to score an insurance run.
“Offensively, we really believe that this kid is going to hit,” manager Joe Girardi said. “We believe he can hit. So if we get him going, with the speed that he has, it creates problems for the defense, the pitchers. It would help us a lot.”
No one knows if or when we’ll see Jeter; Brian Cashman’s “after the All-Star break” proclamation is just a way for the general manager to keep us from asking questions for a few months. The in-season trade market is unlikely to offer much in the way of shortstops.
So the Yankees’ best solution very well might be for Nunez to figure things out. Which he at least shows a hint of doing.
“It’s different when you don’t have to play third base, left field, rightfield. Just work on one position,” Nunez said. “Same groundballs, same [situations] very day. I’m more comfortable.”
There no longer is surprise when Nunez makes a routine play. If the Yankees can reach the point of no surprise when Nunez gets a hit, then maybe they can keep this magic act going.
kdavidoff@nypost.com