CINCINNATI -- Soon after Alex Rodriguez cruised into the Great American Ball Park on Tuesday afternoon he had a mission. Rodriguez needed to locate one of his Yankee teammates and needed to have a conversation about what happened on Monday night. Rodriguez needed to find Boone Logan.
Logan had a miserable one-pitch outing when the Yankees defeated the Reds, 5-3, in the series opener on Monday. Summoned to oppose the left-handed hitting Joey Votto in the ninth inning, Logan drilled Votto with his first pitch. That was the end of Logan’s night. One pitch, one shabby fastball, and the Yankees needed Mariano Rivera to rescue them.
Since Logan is the only lefty in the bullpen, he needs to be adept at one thing: retiring left-handed hitters. But Logan has been disappointing in his critical role as lefties have a .286 average and a .375 on base percentage off him. Manager Joe Girardi wanted to use Logan to face Votto and Jay Bruce, another left-handed hitter, on Monday. After one pitch, Girardi’s plan was trashed.
Rodriguez watched Logan’s outing and, a day later, decided to give him some advice. While it’s common for Rodriguez to mentor Robinson Cano, it’s not common for him to offer tidbits to a reliever. But Rodriguez felt it was necessary. So, along a back row of lockers in the clubhouse here, he lectured Logan for several minutes. There wasn’t a lot of back and forth in the exchange. Rodriguez did most of the talking, bouncing between counseling, encouraging and chiding Logan.
As the two Yankees sat across from each other, Rodriguez lifted his left arm and slowly moved through a pitcher’s motion to seemingly make a point about releasing a breaking ball. After Rodriguez’s display, Logan responded by showing Rodriguez his motion, also doing it in slow motion.
When I asked Rodriguez about his chat with Logan, he said that he mostly spoke to Logan about the importance of preparation. If a reliever waits until after his warm-up pitches to decide how he wants to attack hitters, Rodriguez said that’s too late. Before a pitcher uncorks a pitch or a hitter takes a swing, Rodriguez stressed how imperative it is to have a plan.
Logan’s first and only pitch to Votto was a fastball that was supposed to be on the inside corner. Was that a shrewd plan? Against a powerful hitter like Votto, Logan would have been better off tossing fastballs on the outside corner to try and force Votto to hit the ball the opposite way. When Logan gets ahead in the count, he can then use his slider to try and stifle lefties.
A day after Rodriguez’s conversation with Logan, Girardi called on the left-hander to oppose Votto in the second game of a split doubleheader. After tossing one inside fastball to Votto, Logan was precise about spotting his pitches away. Logan pumped an outside fastball for the second ball, he threw a fastball that Votto fouled off and he nipped the outside corner for the second strike. After Votto fouled off two more pitches, Logan fired a slider on the outside corner. Votto tried to pull the pitch and tapped it to second.
Because Logan retired Votto, he stayed in and faced Bruce. He took the same approach with Bruce, staying away from him with a fastball for a strike. Bruce fouled off an outside slider and then let another slider drift outside for a ball. But Logan came back with a third consecutive slider, which Bruce swung at and missed. For one game, Logan, who held lefties to a .190 average last season, performed like it was 2010.
The Yankees desperately need Logan to produce, which Rodriguez and every player realizes and which is one of the reasons Rodriguez addressed him. After Pedro Feliciano was diagnosed with a strained left rotator cuff in March, General manager Brian Cashman said that he wasn’t hopeful about finding another dependable lefty reliever. The sports talk show callers can shout for Cashman to get somebody to retire lefties, but Logan might have to be that somebody.
During Rodriguez’s talk with Logan, he mentioned how smart Freddy Garcia is at spotting his breaking pitches and how Logan should study what Garcia does. If Logan throws his slider for strikes, Rodriguez told him he “can help us win a World Series.” That’s a hopeful statement, one that won’t happen for Logan unless he’s much better at silencing lefties.
Follow Jack Curry on Twitter: @JackCurryYES
