Batting leadoff, Yanks' Matt Carpenter homers off Angels' Shohei Ohtani in 11-pitch at-bat

On the surface, Aaron Boone’s choice for his leadoff hitter Thursday afternoon seemed unusual.

Matt Carpenter, signed by the Yankees only a week earlier, found himself in that spot when the lineups were posted late Thursday morning.

But coming into the day, Carpenter had hit leadoff in 760 of his 1,146 career starts in the big leagues.

“I spent a lot of my career in the leadoff spot, and took a lot of pride in starting games off with long at-bats,” he said.

It showed.

Carpenter stepped in against Shohei Ohtani in the bottom of the first and ended an 11-pitch at-bat by hammering a full-count cutter into the second deck in right to give Nestor Cortes an early lead (Gleyber Torres made it 2-0 with a homer later in the first).

Before the homer, Carpenter, who brought a career slash line of .279/.382/.482 from the leadoff spot, fouled off five two-strike pitches.

“I never faced Shohei before so [I had) no real expectations,” Carpenter said. “I had a pretty strong game plan as far as what I thought I wanted to do, which was I wanted to try and stay on his fastball . . . So I really stepped in the box trying to stay on his heater, and really just got into a battle with him. Fouling off pitches and he kept throwing strikes, making pitches, and I was able to spoil a few. I thought there was a chance he might try and throw a slider or cutter in that spot. The first 3-2 pitch was a heater I fouled off and the second 3-2 pitch was that cutter and I was able to put a good swing on it.”

The homer provided an immediate lift to the home dugout.

“It was awesome,” Aaron Boone said. “Set a really good tone for us.”

According to Elias, Carpenter became the third player in team history to make his first three hits with the club a home run. The others were Alfonso Soriano in 1999-2000 and Kyle Higashioka in 2018.

“I’d like to mix in a single or something,” Carpenter said with a smile. “That would be nice.”

Carpenter, a three-time All-Star, spent the first 11 seasons of his career with the Cardinals, appearing in 50 postseason games during that time.

“I’ve been fortunate to be on some pretty good teams,” he said of his read of a club he’s been with about a week. “And it didn’t take me more than a couple of days to realize this is a really special group.”  

More Nasty Nestor Numbers

Nestor Cortes has allowed three or fewer runs in 19 straight starts  since Aug. 15, 2021, the second-longest streak in franchise history. He trails only Russ Ford, who accomplished the feat in 20 straight games from Aug. 9, 1910-May 27, 1911.