TORONTO — Gleyber Torres arrived north of the border in the midst of a “mental reset” and returned to the U.S. as one of the Yankees’ in-form hitters.
Torres recorded two hits in three straight games in the Yankees’ 8-1 win over the Blue Jays on Sunday and is 6 for 13 since returning from a two-day benching after going just 2 for 29 at-bats prior to that stretch.
“It feels good,” Torres said. “Just trying to focus on every day in practice and every time I step on home plate now. Just having fun. All my guys work hard every at-bat, so that motivates me. I just want to be a part of that at-bat and do the little things.”
Torres acknowledged he felt the two days off helped him.
He spent time in the cage practicing his swing, but manager Aaron Boone also wanted him to reset mentally as his struggles had weighed on him.
“I know Gleyber can hit,” Boone said. “I feel in my heart that he will. He’s had three great at-bats here. He certainly got a couple of hits today, but he hit another ball to center field and just missed one to right field.
“He’s had some Gleyber-like at-bats, which is good to see because that’s what we need. Hopefully he can keep it up at home.”
After Gerrit Cole smashed a 97 mph fastball into the right hand of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the third inning, Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman appeared to fight back by smacking a fastball into Aaron Judge’s back in the fourth inning.
But things never got worse.
The Yankees discussed delaying or even skipping Luis Gil after two straight poor games, but he instead stayed on the mound and will start Tuesday’s series opener against the Reds.
Before the game, the Yankees released relief pitcher Phil Bickford and recalled left-hander Josh Maciejewski.
Bickford struggled Saturday, giving up five runs on four hits and one walk in 1/3 of an inning.
Maciejewski flew to Toronto on Sunday morning to pitch a “pre-game” in the top of the second inning, briefly raising concerns that something might be wrong with Cole, but then pitched a scoreless ninth inning.
The Yankees assigned pitcher JT Brubaker to Double-A Somerset for rehabilitation assignment, and he pitched three scoreless innings in his third rehab appearance Sunday.
