SEATTLE — Mike Ford has a Princeton University education and a body that resembles a nose tackle’s.
Combine those two attributes with a sweet left-handed swing and you get the latest Yankees first baseman contributing to a season headed for the American League East title.
When the season started, Greg Bird and Luke Voit were at first. Then Bird got hurt. DJ LeMahieu and Voit handled it for a while. Kendrys Morales played several games there, was injured and vanished. Voit went down with a sports hernia and Edwin Encarnacion landed on the IL with a fractured right wrist.
That necessitated the Yankees elevating the left-handed hitting Ford for a third time this year from Triple-A in early August.
With Voit expected to come off the IL on Friday, Ford’s roster spot could be in jeopardy but after what he has done the past two games that would be a tough call.
Ford homered twice Monday night and led the Yankees to a 5-4 victory over the Mariners in front of 23,030 at T-Mobile Park. His two-run homer in the second and solo blast in the fourth were off lefty Tommy Milone. The first multi-home run game of his brief major league career followed a homer off Clayton Kershaw in Sunday’s win over the Dodgers in Los Angeles.
A Rule 5 pick of the Mariners out of the Yankees’ organization in 2017, Ford was returned to the Yankees in spring training the following year.
Staked to a 4-0 lead entering the home second, J.A. Happ’s bad habit of giving up home runs resurfaced and led to the Yankees’ advantage being sliced to a run.
Happ went five innings, gave up two runs, five hits, walked three and struck out seven for the win. He is 11-8. The homer he gave up was a three-run poke to center in the second to Dylan Moore and the 32nd of the season given up by Happ. That is second to Justin Verlander’s AL-leading 33.
What would a Yankee game be lately without an in-depth discussion with an umpire?
Monday night’s incident involved plate umpire Manny Gonzalez going to the mound and having a long discussion with former Mariner reliever Cory Gearrin. Eventually crew chief Sam Holbrook joined the conversation and when the scrum, which included catcher Austin Romine and Aaron Boone, ended, Gearrin was warned for supposedly stutter-stepping after a toe tap with his left foot before unleashing a pitch to Kyle Seager.
In the second, Gonzalez called former Met Keon Broxton, a .185 hitter, out on strikes to end the inning and Broxton strolled toward first base. Gonzalez ejected Broxton, who while walking toward first, began throwing equipment over his shoulder and a batting glove hit Gonzalez in the face.
Before walking Seager in the sixth, Gearrin balked Austin Nola to second and followed that by striking out Tom Murphy. Nestor Cortes Jr. arrived and retired the next two batters to keep the Yankees’ lead at 5-3.
Mallex Smith’s one-out homer to right off Cortes in the seventh cut the Yankees’ cushion to a run.
Tommy Kahnle replaced Cortes to start the eighth and he struck out two of the three batters he faced. Aroldis Chapman recorded the final three outs for his AL-leading 36th save in 41 chances, striking out the final batter on 102 mph heat.
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