Left-handed batters have not had much success against Boston Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet.
Before Saturday night’s game in the Bronx, the left-handed Crochet had held lefty hitters to a .163 batting average, a .256 slugging percentage and only two extra-base hits in 13 starts.
But Austin Wells proved to be a worthy adversary.
The lefty-swinging Yankees catcher clubbed a three-run home run and an RBI double against Crochet in Saturday’s 10-7 loss to Boston — a performance that did not come as much of a surprise to manager Aaron Boone.
“I expect so much of him offensively, and I think so much of him offensively,” Boone said of Wells, “so he’s capable of that right there against the very best, left on left.”
Wells went 2-for-3 against Crochet and finished 2-for-4 in the game, marking his second consecutive two-hit performance.
His second-inning home run came on a first-pitch cutter, which Wells pulled into the right-field stands. Wells then lined a 96-mph fastball into the gap in left-center for his fourth-inning RBI double.
“The ability to drive the ball the other way like he did, hopefully it’s those little things that kind of get him rolling here, to where he can get hot and really get rolling,” Boone said.
After hitting just .206 in May, Wells entered Sunday with a .333 average and a .956 OPS through five games in June. He has at least one hit in seven of his last eight games.
Asked if those hits against the hard-throwing Crochet — who has a 2.35 ERA and led the majors with 110 strikeouts after Saturday — can serve as a confidence boost, Wells replied, “Definitely.”
“[Crochet] threw a lot of good pitches tonight, but I feel like everybody in the lineup did a good job of seeing a decent amount of pitches and putting good at-bats together,” Wells, 25, said. “I got two pitches to handle.”
It’s been an up-and-down sophomore season for Wells, who finished third in American League Rookie of the Year voting in 2024. He homered in the Yankees’ first two games, during which he became the first catcher in MLB history to hit a leadoff home run on Opening Day.
Wells’ .222 average and .288 on-base percentage going into Sunday night’s series finale were both down from the .229 and .322 marks he put up last year.
But Wells’ 36 RBI were tied for the third most among MLB catchers, while his 10 home runs were tied for second. His .743 OPS ranked fifth among major-league catchers.
“I expect a lot of myself,” Wells said.
Saturday’s game was Wells’ third of the season with at least four RBI. His home run was only the second struck by a lefty against Crochet this year.
“You always feel like, in a big spot against a matched-up guy against him, he’s going to give you good at-bats,” Boone said of Wells. “Hopefully this is something that continues to get him where he really starts stringing some things together.”