To his credit, Teixeira has done just that.
Batting left-handed, Teixeira lined a two-run homer into the right field seats in the first inning Saturday to put the Yankees’ offense in motion on a day they put on a home run clinic, blasting five home runs at Yankee Stadium to crush the Pirates 7-1.
The home run was the ninth of the season for Teixeira and 350th of his career.
“That’s a lot of home runs,’’ Teixeira said then added with a smile, “it means I’ve got to play a lot longer to get to 700. It’s a great number. If you had asked me when I was a rookie if I’d ever hit 350 home runs, I would have probably said, ‘You’re crazy.’ It’s really nice.’’
Coming into the day, the pregame attention was focused on another first baseman, ex-Met Ike Davis, who was making his return to New York. But it was Teixeira who grabbed the spotlight with his eighth home run in the past 17 games.
“That home run today got us going,’’ Teixeira said. “Home runs when you lose are pretty empty.’’
Home runs are what the Yankees are all about, especially at home. They have hit 30 at home and 13 on the road.
“We didn’t really see him let the bat go left-handed until the last week of spring training and that made me feel better,’’ manager Joe Girardi said of Teixeira. “We missed him a lot last year. It’s great having him back.
“Our team is built for this park.’’
Mets, take note.
Teixeira is so vital to the Yankees’ offense because Carlos Beltran almost certainly is headed to surgery to remove a bone spur in his elbow. Catcher Brian McCann has had his struggles at the plate, but could be coming around, as he lined his sixth home run in the eighth, and on this day the other big free agent position player signed, Jacoby Ellsbury, was knocked out of the lineup with the flu.
When Teixeira suffered a hamstring injury last month, that gave him a chance to rest his surgically-repaired right wrist.
“I needed to rest the wrist,’’ Teixeira said. “I was doing too much. It really wasn’t feeling great. I was a little nervous about it. Right now, the results are showing. The strength is pretty good now in the wrist, it still needs to get a little looser. I’ve cut back on my swings pre-game to make sure it doesn’t act up on me.’’
Less is more in so many ways and Teixeira is taking full advantage.
“I’m cutting it loose now,’’ Teixeira said. “If you have any doubt, it’s going to be a really bad swing.’’
Teixeira is not letting the shift get into his head anymore, either, and is swinging for the fences.
As for Davis, he has hit only one home run for the Pirates, a grand slam, the same as he did for the Mets, but he is comfortable with the change.
“A fresh start is nice,’’ Davis said. “The background got negative quick in New York for some reason. Some of that was self-induced because I was playing bad, but some of that was just politics. It has been nice to get away from the drama that I couldn’t control that came out.
“Like, there were a couple of articles that came out about me going out too much or this or that, which was really unfair to me because it was not true. It’s nice to get away from that.’’
How is life different with the Pirates?
“It’s relaxing,’’ said Davis, who was 0-3 with three strikeouts and a walk Saturday. “I can get away from the off-the-field stuff that was kind of a burden just because I had to talk about it all the time. Now it’s just getting back to playing baseball.’’
That’s where it starts. That’s where Teixeira is at in his head, just playing baseball.
And producing in a big, big way.