IKF (4 hits, 4 RBIs) finds new life with new approach

SEATTLE — There were times, Isiah Kiner-Falefa admits now, that he was ready to toss the data into the nearest trash can. As the Yankees’ coaching staff continuously pushed him to overhaul his mental approach at the plate, absent tangible results, it was tempting to return to the slap-and-spray style of hitting that he used last season.

Yet the coaches urged Kiner-Falefa to stay the course, promising that his internal metrics suggested he was hitting the ball harder than ever. Those readings are beginning to translate into real-world success. Kiner-Falefa enjoyed a four-hit, four-RBI performance on Tuesday night as the Yankees continued to roll in a 10-2 rout of the Mariners at T-Mobile Park.

“I feel like this is what I can do, this is what I expected to do,” Kiner-Falefa said. “I’ve worked my butt off to make adjustments. There’s been times where I’ve wanted to shy away from it and go back to hitting ground balls up the middle, but they’ve been keying in on me and telling me to stick with it. It’s starting to finally pay off.”

It was the third consecutive 10-run showing for the Bombers, who have tallied a robust 33 runs on 50 hits during their current four-game winning streak.

“It’s no small feat to throw up 10 more runs against that quality of a pitching staff,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Credit to these guys; they’re focused, they’re working. They’re communicating well and they’re convicted in their plans right now. It’s showing itself.”

While the Yankees’ surge has featured heavy lifting from Aaron Judge, who hit his American League-leading 18th homer on Tuesday, they have also benefited from Kiner-Falefa’s improved production.

When the 28-year-old bowed out of the club’s shortstop competition this spring, great attention was paid to his efforts to increase versatility. Tuesday marked Kiner-Falefa’s 24th start in the outfield this season, a position he had never played.

Yet there was just as significant a change underway in the batting cages, where Kiner-Falefa restored a leg kick that he’d utilized to help generate extra-base hits during his time in the Rangers’ Minor League system.

At the urging of hitting coach Dillon Lawson, Kiner-Falefa began using his added mass (about 15 pounds this winter) to aim for line drives toward the gaps rather than dribblers up the middle.

“When I was with Texas, I felt like when I was playing third base, I knew I had to do more offensively,” Kiner-Falefa said. “When I made the shift to shortstop, I wanted to be a [high batting] average guy who steals a lot of bases. Now that I’m moving around, I feel like I’m going back into my third-base mode, where I need to drive the ball to stay on the field.”

Kiner-Falefa drove in the Yankees’ first two runs of the evening with a first-inning single, part of a three-run first that provided starter Nestor Cortes with an immediate cushion. He singled in the third, grounded out in the fifth, then singled in the seventh and ninth innings – the last one, a two-run knock to center field.

“He’s a great piece of this team,” Cortes said. “He knows what his role is, he accepts everything, and he loves to be here. Whatever task you give, I think he’s going to excel.”

Cortes navigated five innings, holding Seattle to two runs and five hits in a 101-pitch effort.

“I thought it was pretty good,” Cortes said. “I was commanding both sides of the plate, and I’m becoming a lot better at finding the top of the zone more consistently.”  

Anthony Volpe and Greg Allen hit homers to highlight a seven-run thumping of starter Logan Gilbert before Judge slugged his third homer of the series and his 12th in 16 games. Judge stole the show in the series opener Monday, enjoying the 31st multi-homer game of his career before robbing a home run from Teoscar Hernández.

In the seventh inning, Judge added to his growing history of Emerald City success, parking a solo shot to left-center field off Darren McCaughan. Judge has hit 10 home runs in 15 career games at T-Mobile Park, where he is batting .375 with 19 RBIs since the beginning of the 2017 season.  

“It’s a really good pitching staff over there,” Boone said. “To come in here and swing the bats the way we have the first two nights, it’s really just kind of a carryover from how we’ve been swinging the last couple of weeks.”