Stephen Drew rounds the bases after homering against the Tigers. (Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports)
DETROIT — Manager Joe Girardi does not mind living by the long ball.
The Yankees had 18 home runs in their first 13 games, just one shy of league leader Baltimore, and tacked on two more on Tuesday. They are averaging five runs per game, eighth best in the majors, despite a .236 team batting average.
Chris Young and Stephen Drew ripped solo shots in New York’s 5-2 victory on Tuesday night in Detroit. Young, Drew, Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira have four home runs apiece.
“It is kind of strange,” Girardi said. “We’ve produced a lot of runs by the home run. We knew we had power in our lineup but I don’t think it will always be like that. We scored five runs in Tampa the other day without hitting a homer but I’m not so sure we’ve done that too often this year.”
The middle of the Yankees’ order — Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira and Brian McCann — has a combined 1,225 career home runs. They also possess other long-ball threats, including Young, Drew, Garrett Jones and Chase Headley.
“That’s kind of the club we are,” Girardi said. “We have some speed at the top, obviously, but you look at three through seven, we have the ability to hit a lot of home runs.”
Teixeira has epitomized the all-or-nothing approach in the early going. The first baseman is batting .200 and all but one of his nine hits have gone for extra bases.
“Can you hit 30 home runs hitting .200? Yeah, that’s been done before,” Girardi said. “But I expect that he’s going to hit higher than .200. He’s one of those guys that has never been a torrid April hitter.”
Girardi can live with modest batting averages, as long as the power displays remain frequent.
“Of course you want to put together long rallies through hits but sometimes, guys hit balls out of the ballpark,” he said. “I’m not going to complain about that.”
