Facing Cincinnati closer Aroldis Chapman and his 102 mph fastball, the Yankees’ Jacoby Ellsbury explained, is just as much a mental exercise as physical.
“Well, it just lessens your reaction time,” Ellsbury said. “You don’t have much time to think.”
Or to pray.
“You just have to go up there trusting your hands, get your swing ready a little bit earlier,” Ellsbury said. “I think that’s the firmest I’ve seen a pitcher throwing 102. Yeah, it’s firm.”
So Ellsbury trusted his hands and his reactions and led off the bottom of the ninth with a single, his season high-tying fourth hit of the game. From there, he trusted his legs and his instincts.
Ellsbury stole second against the lefty Chapman, then advanced to third on a wild pitch and eventually scored the winning run on Brian McCann’s dunk single that fell among three Reds in short right field as the Yankees completed a three-game sweep with a 3-2 victory Sunday at Yankee Stadium.
“It’s not every day you see someone throwing 102. You just try to put a good at-bat together, hope to put something hard in play,” Ellsbury said. “Fortunately, I fouled some pitches to get a pitch I could hit.
“Just trying to relax, not do too much. Someone is throwing that hard you want to be nice and relaxed, maybe shorten up your swing a little bit.”
Ellsbury strung together a terrific at bat. He sent Chapman’s ninth pitch, a mere 101 mph offering, into left to ignite the winning sequence.
“That’s a guy throwing 100 mph plus. Stay in there, foul off some pitches,” manager Joe Girardi said, explaining the approach, leaving out the part about wearing body armor and a triple-lined helmet.
And once Ellsbury was aboard, Chapman was essentially swatting at a mosquito in a swamp.
“In that situation, [you’re] just trying to scrape one run across, I’m trying to get in scoring position as fast as possible. Good thing I did,” said Ellsbury who previously had two singles — one for a fifth-inning RBI — a double and a walk.
“He can do anything on the base paths. He showed off all his tools today, set the tone,” McCann said.
“That’s a big deal. You know he knows what he’s doing,” Girardi said of Ellsbury reaching base. “He can steal second, steal third.”
Or steal second and move up on a wild pitch. McCann then delivered the one-out game-ending hit for the sweep.
“Guys [in] the last three games have put tremendous at-bats together, one through nine in the lineup. When you do that good things happen,” Ellsbury said. “It just makes it tough on the opposing pitchers.”
Even the ones throwing 102 mph.