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The man nicknamed the Machine knew a part of him was malfunctioning, and yet he could not troubleshoot it while he was still plugged in.
Then the Yankees unplugged DJ LeMahieu for five straight games at the end of July, plugged him back in and suddenly found him humming again.
The potential fix came with a small sample size of just three starts, but with the Yankees facing a stretch of three lefties in four games beginning Thursday, LeMahieu will have a chance to prove that he has actually turned a corner in what has been a mostly brutal season.
“I kind of knew what I needed to do. I just couldn’t figure out how to do it,” LeMahieu said Thursday before he was set to bat eighth and start at first base against Angels lefty Tyler Anderson. “But I think taking a couple days off gave me a little different perspective. Able to look at a few things more closely.
“I had been working on stuff over and over again. It just wasn’t clicking. It was nice to get some results and have just a little sense of positivity of what I’m working on.”
The Yankees need to see more of this LeMahieu over the final two months of the season, especially as they try to determine how to handle first base — with rookie Ben Rice cooling off after a hot start and Anthony Rizzo potentially a few weeks away from coming off the injured list.
Over his last three starts before Thursday, LeMahieu was 5-for-12 (.417) with two doubles, a home run, nine RBIs and a 1.218 OPS — the three extra-base hits being as many as he had in his last 23 games (16 starts) before this stretch.
The underlying numbers back up his progress, too. Through July 30 — the last of his five straight games out of the starting lineup — LeMahieu’s average exit velocity (on 116 batted balls) was 87.2 mph.
Since July 31, he has an average exit velocity of 97 mph (on 13 batted balls). His bat speed has also ticked up during the past week.
“I feel like he’s just a little more balanced through the entire swing, holding his posture well,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Looking more like DJ. Some life through the zone. Better balance throughout the zone, not breaking down at all in his swing. It’d obviously be huge if we can keep him going like this because obviously that role is there and an important one for us. It’s good to see him continue to move the needle.”
LeMahieu said he has been “encouraged” by how he’s felt at the plate over the last week. He did not want to go into details on what exactly he fixed during his time off, other than saying he is now in “a better position to hit.”
The 36-year-old infielder returned to the lineup last Wednesday in Philadelphia and drove in all six of the Yankees’ runs with a grand slam and a two-run double.
He got another start Sunday and delivered a walk-off single in extra innings.
Then, in the nightcap of Wednesday’s doubleheader, he got off three bullets, two of them going for hits (one driving in a run before he eventually scored on the other).
“I know I got it, just trying to get it out,” LeMahieu said. “I wasn’t really allowing myself to be myself. Some work in the cage [helped] and hopefully keep it rolling.”
Asked what he meant by not allowing himself to be himself, LeMahieu said his mechanics were to blame for that.
It’s possible LeMahieu’s mechanics had been thrown off when he came back from a non-displaced foot fracture suffered in March.
It happened last year when LeMahieu was coming back from a foot injury that ended his 2022 season prematurely, and he found the fix in time to put together a solid second half.
“Feel like the quality of the at-bat and where he’s at, definitely seen improvement,” Boone said. “Even for a guy that’s been through it and got a ton of experience and a ton of success in the league, anytime you go through some extended struggles and you’re able to now build a handful of games where you’re starting to string together quality at-bats and barrel balls up and things like that, that’s good for the psyche.”
