Rarely does a player have as many as six at-bats in a game. A game would either have to be a blowout in favor of them, affording players plenty of trips back to the plate to try and boost that batting average. Or, a game could go to extra innings to give them additional plate appearances. For Alex Verdugo and the New York Yankees, the latter occurred, with their Tuesday night contest against the Cleveland Guardians going to 12 innings.
One would think that Verdugo, despite being in a down year (he entered the night hitting .233 on the season), would get a hit in six opportunities. He is a lifetime .273 hitter after all, so it's not like he doesn't have the requisite contact skills to at least get one base hit. But in what ended up being a 9-5 loss for the Yankees, Verdugo went blank from the plate on six opportunities, leaving four runners on base.
The Guardians did not have any qualms pitching around the batters above Alex Verdugo in the order, and why would they? He grounded out four times, flew out and struck out once each during the game; his farthest-hit ball was a flyout to center with an exit velocity of 84.3 mph. He was bit unlucky with a sharp 105.1 mph grounder to second base, but beyond that, nothing suggested that he should have gotten much better results from the plate based off of the quality of contact he got.
The 2024 season continues to be a nightmare for Verdugo, and Yankees fans, ever a raucous bunch, let the team's everyday left fielder hear it following that disappointing 0-6 night against the Guardians. But thankfully for Verdugo, he wasn't the only one who bore the brunt of fans' frustrations, with DJ Lemahieu and Gleyber Torres — the latter being the team's lead-off hitter — also going hitless.
“Alex Verdugo went 0-6 tonight and only hit the ball out of the infield one time. Just wanted to make sure he didn’t get lost in the mess of a game we just saw,” X user @rational_yankee wrote.
“Verdugo slashline over his last 30 games: .198/.268/.264 But you know service time for JDomm is more important than winning ballgames,” added @MarqueeMark_.
“My mom who’s a casual fan thinks we need to get rid of Verdugo 😭,” furthered @aybaybaydelia.
POV: Your favorite baseball team employs DJ LeMahieu and Alex Verdugo:
DJ LeMahieu, Alex Verdugo and Gleyber Torres a combined 0-for-14 tonight
Emmanuel Clase vs. Alex Verdugo 💀
mlb teams seeing alex verdugo coming to the plate
Aaron Judge and Juan Soto continue to carry the Yankees' offense
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Where would the Yankees be without Juan Soto? The Yankees' offense continues to be carried hard by both Soto and Aaron Judge, with the two driving in four of their five runs on the night.
It's not quite clear how much longer New York can field offensive black holes in their lineup. Alex Verdugo has been one all season long; after hitting for a solid .745 OPS last year with the Boston Red Sox, he has completely cratered at the plate, with his OPS falling all the way to .649 after his terrible showing on Tuesday against the Guardians.
As fans are calling for on X, it may only be a matter of time before the Yankees call Jasson Dominguez back up to the majors. Dominguez, in his brief cup of coffee in the majors in 2023, wowed fans with his power production. He hit four home runs and tallied an OPS of .980, screaming future star in the process. With September beckoning, Yankees fans are counting the days until Dominguez usurps Verdugo for an everyday role.
