Stewart, Steer Rock Yankees

By Hal McCoy

They call Yankee Stadium The House That Ruth Built, even though it’s a newer model, and the Cincinnati Reds nearly knocked it down Saturday afternoon.

The Reds plundered the New York Yankees, 10-2, doubling their pleasure with a barrage of doubles.

Of their 15 hits, seven were doubles and one was a home run. Their first five hits were doubles.

It was a three-man offensive explosing for the Reds:

***Sal Stewart, a 22-year-old rookie, drove in six runs for the second time this season and has 53 RBI in 75 games.

***Spencer Steer crushed a three-run home run and is 3 for his last 44. All three hits are home runs.

***Rookie Edwin Arroyo produced the first multi-hit game of his young career and did it in a massive way — four hits, all on four on first pitches. It raised his batting average from .190 to .255.

Amazingly, the Yankees put runners on base in all nine innings, but scored only one in the first and one in the eighth. The first-place team in the American League East was 0 for 13 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10.

Red starter Andrew Abbott put runners on base in six straight innings but gave up only one run, a first-inning solo home run by Paul Goldschmidt.

That one was OK, but one in the fifth would not have been OK. The Reds led, 6-1, when Goldschmidt came to bat in the fifth with the bases loaded and two outs.

Goldschmidt has hit seven grand slams during his career and walked three times with the bases loaded.

Abbott went to 3-and-2 on him, then slipped a high and inside fastball past him for a called strike three. Goldschmidt challenged, but ABS ruled it strike three.

“We were peppering him with changeups going the other way (outside),” said Abbott. “My though process was I was going to throw something that looked like it was going that way but it would come back across and hopefully land.”

It was a three-point landing, strike three.

“ABS keeps you on your toes — is it in the strike zone or isn’t it?” he added. “When I threw it I knew, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s in the box.’”

It was an ugly start for the Reds. New York starter Will Warren, 7-and-1 when the day began, struck out the side to open the game, including Stewart.

And Goldschmidt’s homer gave the Yankees a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first.

Then it was Reds thunder and lightning.

The Reds scored four in the second, two coming on Stewart’s two-out double.

He hit a sacrifice fly in the fifth to make it 5-1 and added a three-run bases-clearing double during a four-run fifth that put six big exclamation points on his day.

Stewart looks like a dive bar bouncer, except he is ultra-relegious and would pass out bibles instead of strong arms.

He is Cincinnati’s Atlas because he carries the team on his wide-body shoulders.

“How grateful am I? I’m 22, playing in Yankee Stadium, my parents are in the stands and I don’t even know what to say. This is a dream come true,” said Stewart. “After yesterday’s game (an 0 for 4 game) I had to sit down on the bench and just realize, ‘I’m in Yankee Stadium, man.’”

Abbott was most appreciative of Stewart’s stupefying support.

“He’s good, no question about that,” he said. “It’s maturity and his advancement at the plate. For a 22-year-old he takes really good at bats and he hits mistakes, which is what you have to do in this league.”

Steer’s three-run homer during a four-run fifth stretched Cincinnati’s lead from 2-1 to 6-1.

Even with his three-run homer and the Reds gargantuan win, Steer was subdued after the game, still reeling over his 3 for 44 skid.

“It has been so frustrating, but at least I had value today with that hit,” he said. “But there is no excuse, I have to do a lot better.”

Like Abbott, though, Steer is aptly impressed with Stewart.

“It is the confidence he has in himself as a hitter,” he said. “With runners on, he doesn’t try to do too much. He sticks with what he’s good at, hitting line drives in the gaps. He has been a rock in the middle of our order all year and I expect him to keep that going.”

As usual, Reds manager Tito Francona deflected praise from the guady performerd to the lesser light supporters.

“Everybody is going to talke about what Sal did and I get it,” he said. “It gives me a chance to brag about him. But guys getting on base ahead of him was big.

“Think about Blake Dunn beating out a force out (that prevented a double play),” he added. “Those things can add up. And Arroyo. They got on base and gave them (Stewart, Spencer) a chance to hit with men on base.”

Dunn was on base four times and scored three runs — a walk, the fielder’s choice, a bunt single and a hard single.

And of Steer’s 3 for 44 dilemma, Francona said, “The homer today was huge, it was huge. He’s just a real good baseball player. You’re going to go through periods when you’re either not getting pitches or you’re not swinging quite like you want.

“But he shows up the same way every day and you can never tell if he was 0 for 4 or 4 for 4. I love that about him.”