CLEVELAND — For the first time since Aug. 28, Austin Wells was in the lineup but not in the cleanup spot.
Before Game 4 of the ALCS against the Guardians, Aaron Boone said Wells had gotten away from his swing in recent weeks, so he slipped him down to the eighth spot, with Jazz Chisholm Jr. batting fourth.
And in Wells’ first at-bat of an 8-6 win that got the Yankees to the brink of their first World Series appearance since 2009, the slumping catcher drilled his first homer of the postseason.
It also snapped an 0-for-21 skid that resulted in Wells being replaced behind the plate by Jose Trevino in Thursday’s Game 3 loss.
“I definitely have not felt like myself in the last month,” Wells said. “But [Thursday] night, I felt I made a big adjustment after the game and noticed some things from when I was going good.”
So after the toughest defeat of the season, Wells got to Progressive Field early and worked on making some fixes with the way his swing was approaching the ball, since he felt he had left himself exposed to pitches up in the zone.
And if he was hitting eighth in the order, so be it.
“It doesn’t matter where I am in the lineup,” Wells said. “I just want to be in the lineup.”
Wells had been just 2-for-26 heading into Friday and hadn’t homered since Sept. 9.
He struck out twice later in the game, including in the top of the ninth.
“I feel like he’s missed some pitches [and] swung through some pitches,” Aaron Boone said before the game. “He’s typically a guy that puts the ball in play pretty well while also controlling the strike zone. He’s swung and missed at some pitches, maybe, that he’s had a chance to do some things with.”
That changed with two outs in the top of the second.
After Juan Soto’s two-run shot in the first inning gave the Yankees a quick lead and Cleveland answered with a run in the bottom of the inning, Guardians right-hander Gavin Williams struck out Anthony Rizzo and Anthony Volpe to open the third.
But Wells smashed a four-seam fastball from Williams into the seats in right-center.
The 407-foot homer made it 3-1.
Where Wells lands in the lineup for Saturday’s Game 5 isn’t as important as him getting his swing back.
Boone said Wells “might be just a little worn down” at this point in his rookie season, but that hasn’t shaken the manager’s faith in him.
“I have a lot of confidence in him as a hitter and who he is, just his DNA, as a hitter,” Boone said. “Moving forward, I think he has a chance to have the best at-bats in the best moments. He’s that kind of hitter.”