No one has watched Anthony Volpe's swing over the past few years more than Austin Wells.
So the Yankees' catcher knows what it's like when Volpe is on track, which is what he's seen in the first two rounds of the playoffs going into the World Series.
“He's on fire,” Wells said Wednesday on a video call from Yankee Stadium before the team headed to Los Angeles. “His at-bats were great. He hasn't given up any pitches. You can really see that he's committed to what he wants to do at the plate and he's not giving anything away. That's exactly what we did. That’s what I’m asking him to do.”
In his first postseason, Volpe hit .310 with an .804 OPS in nine games between the ALDS and ALCS.
The shortstop has walked eight times and struck out only six times, routinely putting together quality at-bats and hitting hard balls almost every time.
Volpe's pursuit rate during the regular season was 29.3 percent.
But in the playoffs, that number dropped to 12.5 percent. This is the second-lowest number among eligible hitters this postseason. That's because Volpe was more disciplined at the plate and gave the Yankees a steady presence at the bottom of the lineup.
“No one is trying to do anything too crazy,” Volpe said. “I'm just trying to do my part.”
Volpe, a lifelong Yankees fan, was a spectator in the parade when the Yankees last won in 2009 at the age of 8 and now has the chance to bring the World Series title back to New York.
“It's going to be electric cars, and we're ready,” Volpe said. “We're prepared for every moment. We've been through it all. We know we'll be ready to answer it all when the time comes.”
Follow The Post's coverage of the Yankees in the postseason:
Aaron Boone and Dave Roberts, central figures in the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry in the early 2000s, will reunite Friday as managers of their World Series opponents.
But their history goes back to their college days, with Boone playing at the University of Southern California and Roberts at rival UCLA.
“We weren't friends. I didn't really care about him at the time, and I don't think he really cared about me,” Roberts said with a laugh. “I remember they probably had the best of us at the time, so that probably added to my dislike for him and the Trojans even more. But he was always a great ballplayer. .”
What will happen to Anthony Rizzo, who is playing with two broken fingers, assuming he joins the World Series squad just a month after left-hander Nestor Cortez was diagnosed with a left elbow flexor strain? I know.
“Obviously he's not in the game.” [five] It's been weeks and it's going to be huge for him to come out and get that adrenaline going in the World Series,” Rizzo said. “It might be a little shaky, it might be electric, but we know they have a big left-hander in their lineup that they need to neutralize.”
