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Jorge Castillo, ESPN Staff WriterOct 17, 2024, 03:39 PM ET
- ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the Washington Wizards from 2014 to 2016 and the Washington Nationals from 2016 to 2018 for The Washington Post before covering the Los Angeles Dodgers and MLB for the Los Angeles Times from 2018 to 2024.
CLEVELAND — The New York Yankees will field a different look against the Cleveland Guardians in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series on Thursday.
Jon Berti will start for Anthony Rizzo at first base, while Jose Trevino will get the nod over Austin Wells behind the plate.
The Yankees, up 2-0 in the series, will face the Guardians’ Matthew Boyd — the first left-hander to start against New York this series — and manager Aaron Boone said the changes came down to typical splits — Rizzo and Wells are left-handed hitters; Berto and Trevino are right-handed.
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There were other factors, however.
Rizzo, for one, has two fractured fingers on his right hand, an injury he suffered Sept. 28. After missing the AL Division Series, he went 3-for-8 with a walk in the first two games of the ALCS. Berti, who will bat sixth Thursday, went 2-for-7 with a walk in two ALDS games and played strong defense at first base after never having played the position in a regular-season or playoff game in his career.
“Just loved how he looked in the division series. Love the dynamic he brings to the table,” Boone said of Berti. “Now, Riz is giving me pause just with how good he’s looked, but I still want to be mindful of what he is playing with and through and feel like a lot of this is the confidence I have in Jon, too, and what he can bring to the table here.”
Wells, meanwhile, has struggled at the plate over the past six weeks after a strong summer put him in AL Rookie of the Year contention. He is batting just .104 with a .369 OPS in 109 plate appearances since Sept. 1. He’s 2-for-24 with 10 strikeouts and two walks in the playoffs.
“I think he’s locked in and has obviously struggled a little, but I really don’t think he’s feeling that, necessarily,” Boone said. “I think he’s still playing at a really high level. I think he’s been amazing behind the plate and, even going through this, I still have a ton of confidence that he’s going to bring the right at-bat in a big situation.”
Trevino, an All-Star in 2022, lost the starting catching job to Wells after going on the injured list in July with a strained left quad. He hasn’t appeared in a game since the Yankees’ regular-season finale Sept. 29. He went 3-for-27 in eight starts in September.
