Rookie George Lombard Jr.'s acrobatic slide helps vault Yankees over Rays

NEW YORK (AP) — George Lombard Jr. raced home from third as a pitch went to the backstop and caromed back to catcher Liam Hicks, who dove in attempt to tag the runner.

Lombard started his trickery with a stutter step and wound up scoring on a slide that will long be replayed.

The rookie popped on his feet-first slide and jumped over the catcher while twisting his body in fair territory. Lombard reached down his his right hand on the plate, pulled the Yankees within a run in the seventh inning as they rallied to beat the Tampa Bay Rays 6-4 Thursday night .

“I think that’s my first time ever doing that one in a game,” Lombard said “I was in trouble, had to figure something out and it just of happened."

“I saw him with the ball running towards the plate and I was like, ‘Oh I’m out.’ So I got to make something up,'" he added.

After Austin Wells' sixth-inning homer started the comeback from a 4-0 deficit, Lombard hit an RBI double in the three-run seventh against the AL East champions.

Then in the eighth, Lombard hit a tiebreaking, two-run homer into the second deck in left field.

After his RBI double over left fielder Chandler Simpson pulled the Yankees to 4-2, Lombard took third on when a 101 mph pitch with a 1-1 count to Anthony Volpe hit off Hicks' mitt. A 3-1 curveball broke outside, hit off the mitt and then ricocheted off the backstop back to the catcher.

Lombard sprinted home.

“I saw him sliding, so I went to slide to get the plate,” Hicks said. “He just made a good move. Once you’re on your stomach blocking the plate, there’s really nothing I could have done. Credit to him for making that play.”

Since his debut on Aug. 4, the 21-year-old Lombard is hitting .243 with seven homers and 22 RBIs. A son of former major leaguer George Lombard, he's become the starting shortstop,

“My first thought was the ricochet, ‘Oh no,’" Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “And then just a really good athletic play by the old soccer player.”

Lombard's average dropped to .217 before a hot streak since Sept. 14 in which he's hit .310 (13 for 42) with four homers, 11 RBIs over 10 games.

“He’s been great,” Cam Schlittler said. “He’s a stud. It’s a lot of pressure on you being a shortstop for the Yankees, so I think he’s handled it very well.”

Lined up to start in next week's AL Wild Card Series, Schlittler pitched three innings and finished his first full season with a 1.95 ERA and 239 strikeouts.

Only Ron Guidry (1.74 in 1978) and Spud Chandler (1.64 in 1943) finished with lower ERAs among qualified Yankees.

“You look at the whole season and what I've been able to accomplish with the guys in this locker room, it's been special,” Schlittler said.

The tall right-hander also struck out five to tie Jack Chesbro for the fourth-most strikeouts in team history. Chesbro had 239 in 1904 when he won 41 games. Gerrit Cole (257 strikeouts in 2022 and 243 strikeouts in 2021) and Guidry (248 in 1978) had higher totals.

Schlittler also allowed one earned run or fewer in his final nine starts, matching Whitey Ford in 1963 for the longest streak in team history.

“I think any season anybody does that, it's impressive, but for his first full season in the big leagues, to be able to handle it, it's a big workload for him," Wells said. "To pass all the innings he's ever thrown in his career so still being able to do it, still being able to go out there and give us length, it's impressive.”

An AL Cy Young Award favorite, Schlittler struck out 12 over eight innings in a 4-0 win against Boston in Game 3 of last year's Wild Card Series.

“Who wouldn't want to start the first game?” Schlittler said. "We're all competitors. So at the end of the day, whatever Boonie decides, that's what we're going to roll with.”

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