Yankees have quite a pair in Juan Soto and . . . Oswaldo Cabrera?
The Yankees' Oswaldo Cabrera runs the bases after hitting a two-run home run against the Astros during the seventh inning of a game Saturday in Houston. Credit: AP/Kevin M. Cox
HOUSTON
Move over, Ruth and Gehrig. Step aside, Maris and Mantle.
It’s time for Soto and . . . Cabrera?
Not exactly the classic one-two punch everyone was anticipating this season.
Juan Soto, sure. Premier on-base machine, lethal gap-to-gap threat, an unmatched ability to control the strike zone. But the Yankees’ dream scenario was to pair him atop the lineup with Aaron Judge, then sit back and enjoy the fireworks.
Three days into this season, however, that fantasy has taken a slight detour. Well, actually, a pretty major deviation from that blueprint. One that nobody could have seen coming, and its name is Oswaldo Cabrera.
Cabrera smacked his second tying homer in three games, bringing his RBI total to six in that stretch, and Soto delivered the go-ahead blast later in the seventh inning in the Yankees’ 5-3 win, their third straight comeback victory over the Astros at Minute Maid Park.
As improbable as that sounds — Houston is, after all, coming off seven straight trips to the ALCS (including two World Series titles) — having the Soto-Cabrera pairing as the engine makes it that much more unbelievable.
Soto’s impact on the Yankees’ lineup already has been noticeable, top to bottom, only seven weeks after his arrival in Tampa. But Cabrera’s imprint, to this degree, could almost be described as accidental.
If not for Jon Berti’s late-night flight from Miami, a post-trade travel hitch, there’s a good chance we’d all be living a different reality right now — a Yankees world in which Berti is the starting third baseman and Cabrera is on the bench as the super-utility guy. Who knows what would have transpired these first three days at Minute Maid Park?
Instead, manager Aaron Boone thought it best to go with Cabrera for Opening Day rather than the rushed Berti, and the rest is history. Check this out: According to stat guru Katie Sharp (@ktsharp on X), Cabrera is the only Yankee in the last 100 years with multiple tying homers in the sixth inning or later in the first three games of a season. Previously, at any point, of any season, Cabrera had zero.
“It’s been tremendous,” Boone said. “He’s right in the middle of everything, here in the first three, at a time we really had a need with DJ going down, so credit to him. He’s playing great.”
Oh, right. That’s the other butterfly wing making all this possible. The pitch LeMahieu hammered off his right foot on March 16 at Fenway South has kept him sidelined for the past two weeks, clearing this hero’s path for Cabrera. And with LeMahieu now diagnosed with a non-displaced fracture in that foot, he won’t be back anytime soon.
LeMahieu’s injury felt like a major derailment heading into Opening Day, enough to compel general manatger Brian Cashman to swing the Berti deal less than 24 hours before the start of the season. Now? Cabrera not only has softened the blow, he’s made DJ forgettable for this first weekend.
“I don’t know how to describe it,” said Cabrera, who has seven hits through his first three games. “It’s a good feeling at the moment.”
Saturday didn’t start out that way for Cabrera, whose second-inning throwing error on Yainer Diaz’s routine grounder opened the door for two unearned runs and a 2-0 lead. He also went hitless in two at-bats, his longest drought in these first three games.
That flipped around dramatically in the seventh, however, when Astros reliever Bryan Abreu — back from a two-game suspension — fired a 97-mph fastball so far inside that Cabrera basically had to move out of the way as he swung. He still muscled it over the wall in rightfield, two rows deep.
“Just kind of snuck it out of there,” Boone said. “He’s in a good spot right now.”
Cabrera’s wild romp around the bases also kicked off a wild celebration in the dugout more akin to an October Game 7 than a March Game 3. He was mobbed by teammates as he moved down the bench, slapping high-fives and exchanging hugs.
“We have such a calm, confident group,” said Saturday’s starter, Marcus Stroman, who allowed no earned runs in six innings in his debut. “But we feel like we can explode at any point. It’s just a matter of time.”
Cabrera aside, Soto is a big reason for that, too. When I joked with Cabrera about Soto having trouble keeping up with his offensive production, the affable No. 9 hitter flipped the script. “He’s keeping my hamstrings tight,” Cabrera said, smiling, “because he’s making me run a lot. But we love that.”
With Soto in the No. 2 spot, Cabrera doesn’t stand still on the bases for very long. He went 4-for-4 Friday, including the tying RBI single in the seventh, before striking out in his final at-bat (the game was safely in hand by then anyway).
“Unbelievable,” Soto said. “He’s great. I’m more than happy for him. We all know it’s early, but I’m more than excited to keep seeing that.”
Believe it. The Soto-Cabrera show already is making history. And we’re not even out of March yet.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
