For Jorge Posada, being a designated hitter is a bore.
Getting three or four at-bats a day probably equates to roughly 15-20 minutes of real work. It leaves the player with an awful lot of downtime. Posada’s far more comfortable crouching behind the plate than sitting on the bench. Now that he’s back in his comfort zone, he’s actually in the zone. Posada became the first Yankee to hit grand slams in consecutive games since Bill Dickey in 1937. The granny helped the Yankees sweep the Astros yesterday with a 9-5 win.
“It was exciting. A lot of players were getting on me, telling me where to go,”?joked Posada, who hadn’t caught since May 16. “But it felt good to be back there.”
In what manager Joe Girardi termed a “rehab game,” Posada caught eight innings before sitting out the final frame due to “general soreness.” His ninth career grand slam came just a day after his first in nearly six years. He belted a 2-0 inside fastball over the fence to turn a 3-1 lead into a 7-1 edge with two outs in the fifth.
“To be in that situation to hit two grand slams is amazing,” Posada said. “It doesn’t happen too often.”
While Posada was back where he longed to be, Alex Rodriguez missed the series with a groin injury.
The Yankees hope the third baseman can return Tuesday against the Phillies, but the team had enough offense even when Phil Hughes experienced a bad inning. That came during a rainy sixth when he allowed Kevin Cash’s two-run homer to cut the lead to
7-5. Still, Hughes improved to 9-1 despite allowing a season-high five runs and seven hits in 5 2/3 innings.
“It’s good to have him back,” Hughes said of Posada. “He looked good.”
