After Miserable April, Beltran Is Starting To Heat Up For First-Place Yankees
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Carlos Beltran appears to finally have a clue.
The 38-year-old outfielder has only recently started to swing the bat like the player who was in position to command a three-year, $45 million contract from the Yankees following the 2013 season.
Beltran had a dreadful April, batting .162 with no home runs and just seven RBI, but has started to turn things around in May, hitting .312 (10-for-32) in nine games.
"He's swung a lot better in the last 10 days, since we had that off-day before Boston," manager Joe Girardi told the New York Post following the Yankees' 6-2 win over Baltimore on Sunday. "You just keep riding him out there because you know it's going to change. It's no fun when you're going through it, but he's too good of a hitter for it to last."
A career .280 hitter with 374 homers and 1,389 RBI, Beltran dealt with a variety of injuries last season, including a bone spur on his right elbow, and as a result never really got going. He finished his first season with the Yankees with just a .233 average, 15 homers and 49 RBI in just 109 games.
So when a healthy Beltran started this season off with a whimper, many started to wonder if his decline was permanent. The last few days in particular seem to suggest that news of his demise was premature.
Beltran went 4-for-9 over the last three games of the Yankees' four-game set with the Orioles, hitting his first homer of the season and driving in four runs. He attributed his recent surge to his work ethic.
"I feel like my batting practice is good, but that doesn't mean anything. You have to do it in the game," Beltran said Sunday. "In BP you just hit straight fastballs. In the game they don't throw right down the middle and 65. They throw 93, 94, 95, sinker, slider. If I'm capable of being on every pitch, being on time on the slider and being on time on the fastball, that's when things are fun."
The Yankees own a three-game advantage over the Rays atop the AL East, and start a four-game series at Tampa Bay on Monday night. With hot-hitting Jacoby Ellsbury getting the night off, Girardi penciled Beltran into the No. 2 hole in the lineup, a nod to the veteran slugger's recent approach and results at the plate.
"The most important thing for me as a hitter is just being able to be consistent and have consistent at-bats. I know if I do that, (good things) will happen," Beltran said.
