Yankees hitting coach Dillon Lawson sees encouraging signs that offense will produce

DETROIT – Focus on the process.

And the results, though they haven’t yet, will follow.

Indeed, the hitters’ process and preparation, according to Yankees hitting coach Dillon Lawson, has been encouraging when it comes to an offense that, going into Wednesday night’s game against the Tigers at Comerica Park, had performed similarly to last year’s wildly inconsistent group.

“I fully expect the offensive outburst with runs to show itself,” Lawson, who replaced Marcus Thames this year as hitting coach, said before Wednesday’s game. “But I think if you look at a lot of the process, the way that guys are going about at-bats, the things that happen right before the results show themselves, all of those things are really going well.”

Entering Wednesday, the Yankees ranked 12th in runs, with only the Tigers, Royals and Orioles doing worse. With runners in scoring position, a season-long issue all of last season, the Yankees came into Wednesday 16-for-92 (.174) with a .569 OPS. That, after going 1-for-13 with RISP in Tuesday night’s 4-2 victory over the Tigers in which they stranded 11 runners.

“The runs [not] crossing, they surprise me given the fact the hitters are as prepared as they are,” Lawson said. “And they have good approaches at the plate and even some of the stuff where it’s like quality contact without the ball finding the grass. I’m looking forward to the offensive outburst, but I’m really excited about the process that guys have gone through up until this point.”

Lawson, unprompted and somewhat oddly given the numbers, then brought up Joey Gallo as Exhibit A of what he was referencing. Gallo, after going 0-for-4 with four strikeouts Tuesday night, is hitting .121 (4-for-33) with zero extra base hits, 15 strikeouts and a .377 OPS. Gallo did not start Wednesday night, replaced in left by Aaron Hicks.

“You can look at what Joey Gallo is doing to pitches in the strike zone,” Lawson said, citing some of the club’s internal numbers. “It’s not his typical MO (modus operandi) where he just hits balls hard, but how frequently he’s hitting balls right now is something that he’s done in the past and he’s always had results come with it. And so right now that would be one of those things that shows itself before the results where his contact rate on strikes right now, it’s major league average. It isn’t like he’s swinging and missing 10 percent more, 20 percent more, these types of things you might see in a normal cold streak for a player.”

Lawson continued: “He’s doing a great job of making contact and when he does make contract, it’s hard contact, but it’s right at an infielder, or right out an outfielder, or he hits a ball that is an out for the first time in 131 balls like it that’s been put into play.”

Gallo, who said he might have “chased too much” Tuesday night, did not sound as enthusiastic about his start, though did acknowledge getting perhaps frustrated at times this season at hitting balls hard and not getting rewarded.

“Sometimes it’s how baseball is, but I felt like I was having some really good at-bats and the numbers were saying (otherwise),” Gallo said. “I was hitting the ball hard and having good at-bats, just sometimes it’s bad luck, but for right now I just have to keep going and keep working. I think sometimes you start to chase results and sometimes that can get in your way a little bit.”

And Gallo being on the bench despite bringing solid career numbers – though certainly from a small sample size - (3-for-8, two homers) against Detroit starter Eduardo Rodriguez, did not bother the outfielder.

“I’m not playing well enough right now to be in the starting lineup every day and I understand that,” Gallo said. “There’s guys playing a lot better than me.”