Harrison Bader displays the defense that prompted Yankees to acquire him 

The Yankees’ lead appeared to be sinking along with Abraham Almonte’s  liner to center, but Harrison Bader entered the picture and made an eye-catching catch. 

With Red Sox runners on first and second and one out in the eighth inning on Saturday at Yankee Stadium, that two-run lead was in danger — and Almonte made a bid to cut it to one, maybe none if the ball touched down and skipped by Bader.

But Bader was acquired from the Cardinals on trade deadline day to eventually make plays like these.  The fast-moving centerfielder from Bronxville raced forward in the Bronx and made a headfirst dive, and the ball landed in his glove. The Yankees went on to escape unscathed and hold off a ninth-inning threat to win, 7-5, even though Aaron Judge remained stuck on 60 homers.

“That’s a great play to me,” manager Aaron Boone said. “That’s a short list of people making that, getting that read, jump, diving straight headfirst like that. It’s an elite play out there that he made. Obviously, that’s what we sought and went out [and obtained]. That’s who he’s been in his career. But he’s impacted us every game he’s been a part of.”    

The Yankees had to wait a long time for Bader to play after the Aug. 2 deal in which they shipped Jordan Montgomery to St. Louis. While the lefty excelled for his new team, Bader wore a boot as he tried to recover from plantar fasciitis.

He finally was good to go Tuesday and has reached base safely in all five games since — all at Yankee Stadium, all victories. He’s 4-for-14  with two walks, three runs and six RBIs. 

His debut against the Pirates came with three of the RBIs, including a tying single and a go-ahead two-run single. He had a two-run double in the next game against Pittsburgh, and he tied Thursday’s series opener with Boston with a sacrifice fly in the eighth. So he owned the six RBIs after his first three games.

In Friday’s game, he helped create the tiebreaking run in the eighth. Bader drew a two-out, pinch-hit walk, stole second, continued to third on a wild pickoff throw behind him toward first and scored on Jose Trevino’s single. 

Bader, who was a 2021 National League Gold Glove winner, finished Saturday with a walk in four plate appearances and that one great catch.

“On defense, there are a lot of controllable factors, in my opinion,” he said. “Catches like that [and] stealing bases, a lot of it is done with your first step. Catches, too, where you’re positioned on the field helps a lot.”

So how would he sum up his first week as a Yankee?

“Like I said when I was rehabbing and I was just getting ready to focus to come back and play, all I cared about was winning, and we’ve done a lot of that the last week,” Bader said. “So it’s exciting to just keep that rolling.

“And obviously with what Judge has got going on, I’m sure he’s dealing with a lot of stuff there. So we’re all pulling for him to kind of keep working through it. It’s exciting. It’s been a really fun week.”