Yankees prospect George Lombard Jr. has huge day against Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet
FORT MYERS, Fla.— The Yankees have a new secret weapon against Garrett Crochet.In the Grapefruit League, at least.
Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Greg Joyce about the inside buzz on the Yankees.George Lombard Jr.
took the Red Sox ace deep to lead off Wednesday’s exhibition, then drilled a single off him in his second at-bat for two of the three hits Crochet allowed.“It’s always good getting to face the elite guys in the league,” Lombard said.“I was excited for it.
Looking for something to hit, not trying to do too much with it and put a good swing on it.” Lombard has already turned in a standout spring defensively, making highlight-reel plays at shortstop, third base and second base.But he has also flashed his offensive potential with plenty of hard-hit balls like Wednesday, with his OPS now up to 1.196 through six games.Crochet, the big lefty who most recently shut down the Yankees in a dominant start in Game 1 of the AL wild-card series last October, threw a 97 mph fastball at the top of the zone on a 1-2 count to Lombard to lead off the game.
The top prospect had no trouble catching up to it, clobbering it over everything (including the Green Monster replica) in left field for a 392-foot homer that came off the bat at 104.2 mph.Then in the third inning, Lombard roped a 108.5 mph bullet that got past shortstop Trevor Story for a single.“He’s been great,” manager Aaron Boone said.“You see what he’s capable of.
The thing he does pretty well already, as a young hitter, is control the strike zone and has real pop.Obviously a no-doubter there to start things off.
He’s just continuing to develop as a hitter.”Luis Gil looked the sharpest he has all spring in his third start, striking out six and walking two across three-plus scoreless innings.More significant than the results, Gil’s fastball velocity continued to tick up, averaging 95.7 mph (up from his 2025 average of 95...