BALTIMORE — As they attempt to turn their season in a winning direction, the Yankees recently have been changing the direction of their batted balls.
The Yankees, a heavy pull-hitting club for much of their recent history, have been using the whole field more since Sean Casey became hitting coach earlier this month.
For the five games prior to their 1-0 loss to the Orioles at Camden Yards on Friday night, Yankees hitters had pulled 38.5 percent of pitches they put into play. For their first 97 games, the majority of which came under Dillon Lawson’s regime as hitting coach, they pulled balls at a 42.4 percent clip.
The difference is slight, but noticeable.
Are they attempting to better use the entire field?
Not exactly, according to Isiah Kiner-Falefa.
But the Yankees may be going the opposite way more often because they are taking an extra split second before deciding whether to swing.
“We’re trying to see the ball longer,” said Kiner-Falefa, who didn’t play Friday. “Since Sean’s got here, I feel like he’s been really preaching: ‘See the ball deep and slow the game down.’ So I think we’re just trying to do that more as a team.”
Kiner-Falefa has been a particularly eager pupil. In the first half of the season, the righty-hitting utilityman — who had reworked his plate approach, focusing more on swinging hard rather than putting the ball in play — pulled 36.9 percent of his batted balls.
He entered Friday with 15 at-bats in the second half and had put just one ball into play to the left side.
He was going up the middle most often (10 times) and went toward right field four times.
The results (.721 OPS in the span) have been encouraging, even if Kiner-Falefa is not trying to go up the middle or to the right side.
The team has been trying to see the pitch for an extra moment, which has led to fewer early swings that result in pulled balls.
“It’s just a little different approach,” said Kiner-Falefa, who said he still is focused on putting extra power into his swings. “I’m trying to go to left field, personally. If it goes to right field, it ends up harder [this year] rather than just a little flare.”
The adjustments have been working this season for Kiner-Falefa, who is lifting the ball into the air more than he ever has and who has been hitting the ball the hardest of his career (an average 88.7 mph exit velocity). The previously light-hitting, bottom-of-the-order Kiner-Falefa worked his way up to being the leadoff hitter Wednesday on a Yankees team that has not hit well under either Lawson or Casey.
In the early days of Casey’s reign, though, the approach has looked a bit different.
“Just seeing the ball as deep as we can,” Kiner-Falefa said.
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