Anthony Volpe is coming down with a cold.
“It’s been a tough week for him,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Teams are attacking him in the strike zone.”
Volpe has appeared in 23 games since June 26th, batting .191 with a .461 OPS, no home runs, 29 strikeouts and three walks.
It was the same story on Tuesday night against the Reds, when he went 0-for-5.
“Early in the count, there are good pitches coming up that he can hit and he’s probably missing them,” Boone said. “He’s hitting a lot of balls foul and maybe hitting a little more than he has this year.”
In the bottom of the ninth inning, with the Yankees trailing by one run and two outs, Volpe came to bat.
He was their hope to keep fighting.
Strike one and strike two came quickly before he got a hit.
However, all that contact resulted in was a pop fly that was easily caught by Ellie de la Cruz.
Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post
With Volpe’s final out, the Yankees ended June on a downturn, losing their first game of the new month, 5-4.
The 23-year-old is swinging at the balls he should be hitting and whiffing at the balls he shouldn’t be hitting.
Previously, Volpe had been working on tweaking his swing during the offseason to address a weakness in covering the upper part of the strike zone.
And his efforts have paid off, as he has started the season strong.
After flattening out his batting average, Volpe hit .372 in 43 consecutive at-bats.
He placed more importance on making solid contact with the ball than on letting it float.
Volpe also caught the attention of ESPN’s Paul Henbekides, who predicted the second-year shortstop would have a better season than Derek Jeter did at age 23.
But all that offseason effort and early-season brilliance is now just a memory.
“It’s been a tough week for him,” Boone said.
The Yankees finished June with a disappointing 4-10 record, but Volpe’s poor performance was part of the reason.
Manager Boone said he’s “confident we can turn things around,” but the reality is that time is running out for Volpe as the leadoff hitter.
