DUNEDIN, Fla. — Aaron Boone said near the start of camp that he wanted his club to be aggressive in using the automated ball-strike challenge system.
How does a 6-for-8 day sound in that regard?
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The Yankees were both aggressive and mostly accurate with their challenges Tuesday during an 8-7 win over the Blue Jays at TD Ballpark. That included Austin Wells and José Caballero both going 2-for-2 in getting calls overturned. Caballero used both in a single at-bat to draw a walk, Jazz Chisholm Jr. nailed his only challenge and Trent Grisham went 1-for-2, though Boone did have a slight issue with Grisham’s miss.
“We want to be really good at it,” Boone said. “We want to be the best at it. I feel like our guys, we’ve been preaching around here long enough about controlling the strike zone.
“I thought Grish’s second one where he was wrong was probably a little emotional for him. He kind of wanted to challenge the first one and then the last one, when he probably wasn’t convicted. But overall, I thought guys did a good job with it.”
Home plate umpire Tom Fornarola makes an announcement as New York Yankees shortstop José Caballero challenged a call that was overturned. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
With teams getting two challenges per game — and retaining them as long as they are correct — one thought might be to save them for big spots late. But Boone does not agree with that idea.
“This isn’t ‘save them for the seventh, eighth and ninth,’ ” Boone said. “I want us to be right. … But I just want us to also inherently understand leverage. You’re down to one and it’s the fifth inning, nobody on, two outs, 1-0 count, that’s one I feel like we got to nail that one if we’re challenging that one. But it doesn’t change [in a] big spot, two strikes, fourth inning, two men on, that’s the biggest spot at that moment.”
Spring training stats mean next to nothing, especially for a veteran like Paul Goldschmidt. But they don’t hurt, either, and the first baseman continued his solid start Tuesday by crushing a two-run homer off tough righty Tyler Rogers and later adding a two-run double against righty Jesse Hahn.
Paul Goldschmidt blasted a home run on Tuesday for the Yankees. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
“It’s definitely not a time where you just want to go through the motions,” said Goldschmidt, who will leave camp this weekend to play for Team USA in the WBC. “You want to have good at-bats and really more than anything, just keep building toward the regular season.”
Two relievers vying to break camp in the Yankees bullpen had solid outings Tuesday, with Jake Bird delivering 1 ¹/₃ scoreless innings and lefty Brent Headrick making his spring debut with a scoreless frame.
Kervin Castro, another bullpen candidate after he was added to the 40-man roster this offseason, tossed two shutout innings.
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