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#Yankees’ DJ LeMahieu, Luke Voit in line for batting, home run titles

#Yankees’ DJ LeMahieu, Luke Voit in line for batting, home run titles

It’s hard to know how the milestones of 2020’s 60-game season will be remembered, but the Yankees are set for a pair of significant ones.

With four more hits in Saturday’s 11-4 win over the Marlins in The Bronx, DJ LeMahieu put himself in position to win the AL batting title. His average is .359 going into the final game of the season. Tim Anderson of the White Sox entered Saturday hitting .337.

LeMahieu won the 2016 NL batting crown with the Rockies and would become the first player in modern baseball to win it in both leagues.

And Luke Voit hit his 22nd homer of the season and is set to lead the majors in that category.

“Pretty damn cool,’’ Voit said of the potential milestone.

“I felt like every time I hit a home run, Jose Abreu hit one,’’ Voit said of the White Sox slugger, who had 19 homers heading into Saturday. “I’m not worried. If I win it, I win it.”

And he admitted he wondered how many he would have hit in a 162-game season.

Yankees
Luke Voit, DJ LeMahieuPaul J. Bereswill, N.Y. Post: Charles Wenzelberg

“Everybody wishes this year wouldn’t have been so weird,’’ Voit said. “You’ve got to just roll with it. I did what I could this year.”

If he holds off Abreu, he’ll join a list of Yankees home run champions that includes Babe Ruth — among many others.

“I’ve always admired the Babe,” Voit said. “It’s awesome company. He hit 700 home runs. That means I have to hit 150 a year to catch up to him.”

Manager Aaron Boone said if they finish off the accomplishments, “they’re big deals and things that should be celebrated.”


Clint Frazier went 0-for-3 and has just one hit in his last 21 at-bats. He whiffed three times and appeared to take a ball off the back of his helmet when he stole a base in the sixth.

“Nothing came to my attention,’’ Boone said of the play, given Frazier’s concussion history.

Boone thought Frazier might have been overly patient in recent days.


Giancarlo Stanton entered Saturday in a 1-for-19 funk with 11 strikeouts and two walks — as well as having gone hitless in 11 at-bats.

His double in the bottom of the fifth scored Aaron Judge from first base and tied the game. The Yankees had hoped both Stanton and Judge would be healthy and playing well by the playoffs after returning from leg injuries, but Stanton has been consistently unproductive before the two-bagger.


The Yankees entered Saturday with an MLB-high 47 errors, as well as a .976 fielding percentage, last in the majors. LeMahieu made an error, giving the team 13 in seven games.

“We have a really good defense,’’ Voit said. “Errors are part of the game and we’ve had a lot lately. … We need to make plays. You can’t beat good teams if you make a lot of errors.”


Gleyber Torres wasn’t in the lineup Saturday. He’s in a 3-for-23 slide and has made two errors in his last three games, giving him nine on the season.

“There’s just been a handful of routine plays that have gotten away from him and that’s ultimately gonna be the difference between him becoming a really good defender out there,’’ Boone said. “He has the equipment to do that. The guys who are really good defensively at shortstop, it becomes about the routine every single day. I think Gleyber is in that category. He’s just got to find a little more consistency. I’m confident he’s gonna play well and has the ability to play it well. I always feel like Gleyber has a knack for when it matters most, playing his best baseball and certainly that’s what’s ahead of us.”


The Yankees need to find out who they’re playing in the wild-card round before they determine their 28-man roster, but Boone said in a best-of-three series, the “biggest decision might come down to how many pitchers you keep and the position players you have to pinch hit and pinch run.”

He also said it was possible they might keep three catchers.

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