CHICAGO — There are times in a tight game, Luke Voit acknowledged Thursday, when he’ll gaze from home plate back to his superiors for reminders and reassurance.
“I’ll look over to [hitting coach] Marcus [Thames] in the dugout, and he’ll go, ‘Slow down. Don’t take that big swing,’” Voit explained to The Post, also simulating how Thames will push his hands forward, like a police officer stopping traffic.
If you’ve watched Voit play so much as once, you know the 28-year-old is a high-energy, excitable player. He’s precisely the type of player you wonder about in big spots. Will he psych himself out? Amp himself up too much? As opposed to, say, first-year Yankee DJ LeMahieu, who is so low-key he probably wouldn’t flinch if a grizzly bear raided his kitchen.
Just like LeMahieu, however, Voit has thrived in clutch situations since joining the Yankees in the middle of last year. The Yankees’ overall success performing with runners in scoring position, an area of weakness more often than not in the past decade, largely explains how their offense has continued to thrive despite missing injured twin behemoths Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton for the bulk of the season. And Voit’s prowess in this area has played a considerable role in his ability to stabilize the Yankees’ first-base position and turn former top prospect Greg Bird into an afterthought.
Entering Thursday’s series opener against the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field (the worst ballpark name ever), Voit owned a .300/.455/.620 slash line in 66 plate appearances with runners in scoring position this season. Most recently, in Game 1 of Tuesday’s day-night Subway Series doubleheader, Voit delivered a fourth-inning, two-out, three-run homer against the Mets’ Zack Wheeler to break a 4-4 tie en route to a 12-5 Yankees victory.
“I’m making sure I’m not getting overaggressive,” said Voit, who went 0-for-4 in the Yankees’ 5-4 loss to the White Sox. “I think some guys get like that. … Especially in a big game against Boston or Houston, someone like that, you’ve just got to remember to breathe, step out, take some extra time.”
Last year, which included a handful of opportunities with the Cardinals prior to the trade that made him a Yankee, Voit had a .387/.472/.774 slash line in 36 plate appearances with runners in scoring position. In situations that Baseball Reference identifies as “Late and Close” — in the seventh inning or later with the batting team tied, ahead by one, or with the tying run on base or on deck — he stood at .270/.357/.527 through Tuesday’s action.
“That’s me doing my homework, too,” Voit said. “Pitchers do pitch a little differently with guys in scoring position than they do if there’s nobody on. They attack me. They’re throwing me sliders. They know I can hit a fastball, so they’re throwing me their best secondary pitch.”
He does hit fastballs best, as confirmed by MLB.com’s Baseball Savant page, and while he has struggled against sliders and curveballs this season, he hit them better last season, putting up a .300 batting average and a .353 weighted on-base average.
“I get a little pull-happy sometimes,” Voit added. “Sometimes, with runners in scoring position, I’m trying to get that three-run homer. And that’s when I strike out.”
He made a few self-critical comments like this. I had to remind him a couple of times that I was writing a column on why he is good, not bad, at this important skill. Voit laughed.
“My goal every year is to improve at statistics like that,” he said. “That’s how I get paid.”
He continues to pay off, of course, for the Yankees, whose offensive identity has changed for the better thanks to their star rising from near-oblivion.
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