By comparison, the quest for the Holy Grail was child’s play compared to Greg Bird’s search for consistency during the 2018 Yankees season.
The discovery didn’t come Tuesday.
Bird started for just the second time in six games, riding an 0-for-17 skid. He left the 5-4 win over the White Sox 0-for-21. He hit the ball hard in his first three at-bats, with two fly outs to right and a line-drive double play to first to show for it. Then, with a runner in scoring position and the score at 4-4 in the eighth, he popped out to short.
“An out’s an out and a hit’s a hit. You just keep going, that’s it, really,” said Bird, whose night became a mere footnote when Neil Walker delivered a pinch-hit homer in the ninth. “Found some barrels, that’s a good thing.”
Barrels, but no hits. Bird has been ravaged by injuries and surgeries. He missed all of 2016 with shoulder surgeries. Ankle surgeries took away big chunks of 2017 and again at the start of this season. Manager Aaron Boone has maintained Bird is the victim of stamina shortage. You sit for so long, it takes a while to build everything back.
“That’s part of it, absolutely,” Boone said. “Coming off of surgery, missing significant time, it’s just building that stamina, that strength to where you’re back to. When you’re a big-league player, you’re like a race car getting everything firing properly. That’s what makes guys special and hopefully, the work he continues to put in can get him to that point because we know when he’s right, he’s a difference-maker.”
But this season has been a statistical nightmare. Health finally has arrived. Production has not, although the Yankees think he’s right there.
“His work’s been good. We’ve just got to get the results in the game. … Just got to have more consistent at-bats,” hitting coach Marcus Thames said.
“It’s about consistency. I feel like this year I’m had more trouble finding that consistency for sure,” said Bird, who essentially had been displaced by Luke Voit.
“You’ve just got to keep going. Keep looking for it, keep finding it. Sometimes, I think we get too wrapped up in trying to find it instead of letting kind of happen. Sometimes less is more,” said Bird, who insisted his ankle is fine. “I’m fine. I’m right where I need to be.”
The game started horribly for Bird. He dropped an easy flip to first from second baseman Ronald Torreyes to allow Yolmer Sanchez, the game’s first batter, to reach.
“That was stupid. I have a glove that I’ve been using and it’s been tearing so I’ve been switched over and that one just popped out. It happens,” Bird said. “It was just a dumb mistake.”