Hitting coach Dillon Lawson, other Yankees address team’s offensive woes

BOSTON — Shortly after the Yankees started Sunday’s doubleheader with just four hits in a 6-2 loss to the Red Sox, hitting coach Dillon Lawson, among others, addressed the Bombers’ unproductive offense.

Prior to Sunday night’s series finale, the Yankees had failed to score more than three runs in seven of their last 10 games, a stretch that saw them go 3-7 against the sub-.500 Mets and White Sox and the last-place Red Sox. Those clubs all began Sunday with three of the 10 highest team ERAs in baseball.

“We’re flipping over all the rocks looking for any little advantage that we can,” Lawson said.

While the Yankees have been missing Aaron Judge thanks to a right big toe injury, the team still has high-paid veterans such as DJ LeMahieu, Giancarlo Stanton, Anthony Rizzo and Josh Donaldson. However, those former All-Stars and MVPs have not been producing at a consistent rate.

“We just got a few of our guys, especially guys we lean on, that are kind of going through it right now,” Aaron Boone said.

“They’re gonna hit.”

Below is what Lawson and Boone had to say about the individual and overall offensive woes. Stanton also spoke in between games.

Note: All stats are through the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader unless otherwise noted.

DJ LeMahieu

.232/.291/.388, 7 HR, 23 RBI, 87 wRC+, 61 G

LeMahieu started off strong this season, but his struggles have been the most prolonged.

Boone and Lawson attributed this to a problem with the infielder’s load.

“His load has changed a little bit,” Lawson said. “It’s caused him to come off the ball a little bit earlier. His first move’s off the ball.”

Asked to explain further, Lawson said that LeMahieu is not striding toward the middle of the field.

“When you swing, your energy should go right out to center field, straight. His stride’s a little bit more toward shortstop right now,” the coach said, which is causing LeMahieu to fly open.

Lawson said that LeMahieu has made adjustments in the cage, but those haven’t translated to in-game success. Lawson also doesn’t think that LeMahieu is overcompensating for anything, nor does he think this is a habit LeMahieu picked up last year when he did have to compensate for his injured foot/toe. Lawson believes that because LeMahieu’s load wasn’t an issue earlier this season.

“If he had started the year like this, you might have that story,” Lawson said, “but I wouldn’t say that you have that storyline now.”

The Yankees have said that LeMahieu is healthy. They’ve also remained confident that the former batting champion will turn things around.

“If he can get there and figure that [load] out, he’s got the hit tool,” Boone said.

Giancarlo Stanton

.211/.268/.456, 6 HR, 13 RBI, 95 wRC+, 24 G

Lawson feels that Stanton’s issue is a matter of timing, as was the case last year when he returned from a mid-season injury. This year, the Yankees activated Stanton on June 2 following a long layoff caused by a hamstring injury.

Stanton seemed to agree with Lawson.

“Just need to find my rhythm,” the slugger said. “Pick the ball up a little sooner.”

Stanton said that more reps would help, but there are only so many of those to be had in non-game situations during the season. Boone added that he believes getting Stanton back in the outfield will help him a bit.

“You guys think he just goes to the outfield and starts banging,” Boone said, referring to reporters. “He’s gonna bang wherever he is once he gets rolling. But I do think it helps somewhat. It’s good for him athletically. It’s good for him health-wise when he’s able to do that. It keeps him more finely tuned. And I do think there’s a subtle benefit to him being out there performance-wise.”

Boone said that Stanton was going to play the outfield on Saturday before rain resulted in Sunday’s doubleheader, in which Stanton DH’ed both games.

Anthony Rizzo

.265/.341/.434, 11 HR, 35 RBI, 118 wRC+, 65 G

Rizzo has the best numbers of anyone mentioned in this story, but he’s cooled off dramatically since returning from a stiff neck in early June. But according to Lawson, the first baseman started dealing with a “swing decision issue” in mid-May, and that led to him “expanding the zone a lot” and “turned into maybe a timing issue” by late May.

But Boone saw better timing from Rizzo in Game 1 of the doubleheader, during which he went 1-for-4 with a single and a hard-hit flyout off Nick Pivetta.

“You see the Pivetta swing he had, where that’s in control, on it, on time. Smokes it, just gets under it a bit. That’s what you want to see him getting off. And then getting the other way there with a base hit to get a result, hopefully it’s something that can spark him a little bit.”

Lawson also said that Rizzo has adjusted his batting cage routine in recent days.

Josh Donaldson

.160/.232/.520, 6 HR, 8 HR, 98 wRC+, 16 G

Donaldson, who didn’t play in Sunday’s first game, has hit five home runs since coming off the injured list on June 2. But he hasn’t done much else, recording just one other hit.

Boone, however, isn’t worried about that just yet.

“He’s hitting the ball hard, which is good,” the manager said. “If you kind of dig through and go through the at-bats, even though the average obviously isn’t good yet, he’s hit a lot of balls hard. And if he continues to do that, we’re going to be in a good spot here when we look up weeks and months from now.”

The Judge narrative

The Yankees, for the second time this season, are sputtering offensively without Judge. However, Boone has insisted that the team has plenty of firepower without the reigning MVP.

“That’s the storyline. So we’re gonna get beat over the head with that. The reality is, that team we’re rolling out there? Capable of doing damage offensively,” Boone said of a lineup that began Sunday with a .233/.301/.416 slash line. “And even more capable obviously with Judge. You take the best player in the world out… So that, to me, is just an excuse right now. We got plenty of guys capable of putting up big runs, and I know it’s going to be the story every day until we start banging away. But we got more than capable people to get it done. We just got to get a little more consistent right now.”

Lawson, however, conceded that, “Usually, these types of things do stem from trying to do a little bit extra when a guy like Judge is out.”

“We’ve had this situation before,” Lawson continued. “We were able to rebound, especially in the month of May, even before Judge got back. So we anticipate being able to rebound again.”

Stanton, meanwhile, didn’t want to make any excuses involving Judge.

“We got to win games regardless,” he said. “Obviously, it’s a big blow for us. But we got to figure out how to win games. That’s the situation we’re in, so can’t have any excuses.”

Maintaining control

When speaking of the overall offense, Lawson and Boone would like to see the Yankees do a better job of controlling counts and the strike zone.

“Batting average speaks for itself,” Lawson said. “We’re not getting enough hits. And then on-base percentage, we’re not getting enough walks. We get ourselves into some good counts… and then maybe expand the zone when we’ve got that advantage instead of using that count to our advantage and looking for a mistake or being disciplined enough to take that walk.”

Boone added, “We gotta be better,” when asked if his team is doing enough to control the zone without Judge.

“Even throughout the year, we gotta be better,” the skipper said. “We’re not a finished product, and we got to continue to work to get better in all facets.”

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