Yankees At-Bat of the Week: Trent Grisham (7/19)

Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

The Yankees spurned a critical opportunity to win a series from and gain a game back on the division-leading Blue Jays, shoddy defense once again at the heart of the rubber game loss. It was hoped that the momentum from the crazy 12-9 comeback victory over the Braves would catapult the team into this divisional tilt in Toronto, but instead the Yankees will have to claw back ground in the upcoming seven game home stand. Perhaps the offense can return to Trent Grisham’s go-ahead grand slam in Atlanta

as inspiration as they get set to defend home turf.

We join Grisham with the bases loaded and two outs in the top of the ninth of an 8-8 tie. The Yankees have done valiantly to fight back from two separate five-run deficits and now have a chance to take their first lead of the contest. A Paul Goldschmidt leadoff double, an intentional walk of Aaron Judge and an unintentional walk of Giancarlo Stanton have the bases juiced against Atlanta’s struggling closer Raisel Iglesias, but with two outs Grisham is going to need a base knock or some help from the defense to score a run.

Iglesias starts Grisham off with a first pitch slider down and in looking to get a chase to steal strike one.

It’s a well-executed pitch commanded to the back foot, requiring a disciplined take by Grisham, especially considering Iglesias had thrown a first-pitch fastball to three out of the first four hitters of the inning.

After failing to get Grisham to chase the first pitch out of the zone, Iglesias does not want to fall any further behind in the count and opts to challenge Grisham with a heater in the zone.

Igelsias gets away with a mistake here, grooving this four-seamer right down the pipe. Fortunately for him, Grisham isn’t quite ready to hit on this quick pitch from Iglesias and is therefore late against 94 down the middle.

Perhaps the failed execution of the previous fastball alarmed Iglesias and maybe the first-pitch slider felt better coming out of the hand, because he decides to go back to the slider with the count level at 1-1, the catcher setting the same down and in target as the first one he threw.

You don’t get many better mistakes to hit than a cement mixer slider middle-middle and Grisham certainly does not miss this one. He clobbers this ball into the bullpen in right for the go-ahead, ninth-inning, two-out grand slam to complete the most improbable comeback victory of the season.

Here’s the full AB:

Courtesy of Baseball Savant

Although he led off the fifth with a double, Grisham had missed a few center-cut pitches this game, and seemed determined not to miss another with his swing on the hanging slider. In addition to being late on the heater in this AB, Grisham flew out on a pair of meatball fastballs earlier in the contest, his bat path on both swings just a tad too flat to meet the ball with the barrel. You could see the adjustment he made in this AB, adding just enough loft to his swing to crush the slider for a grand slam.

After a scorching first month of the season, Grisham cooled off considerably in May and June. That’s why it has been encouraging to see his bat heat back up in July, with a 169 wRC+ for the month entering play on Wednesday. With the attrition the Yankees have suffered on the pitching side, they need players like Grisham to step back up and help carry the team until their pitchers get healthy.

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