Heliot Ramos early Yankees returns are disappointing but underlying numbers tell different story

TORONTO — Heliot Ramos knows why the Yankees acquired him at the trade deadline: to help lift up a scuffling offense. The outfielder has been eager to do just that.Except in his first handful of games with his new team, despite hitting the ball hard, he has not gotten much in the way of results, which is where human nature starts to kick in and perhaps work against him to an extent.  Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Greg Joyce about the inside buzz on the Yankees.

“Probably just trying to do too much,” Ramos said Friday at Rogers Centre.“Because I see the ones that I hit not landing.

I feel like you’re going to get out — things happen, baseball happens, you’re going to get out.So whenever that happens, I’ve tried to do too much and that’s when the strikeouts happen.” Entering Friday’s game against the Blue Jays, Ramos was batting 2-for-25 with two doubles, 10 strikeouts and three walks in his first eight games as a Yankee.

That included being 0-for-6 with two walks against lefties, whom the right-handed hitter had been brought in to mash. In the extremely small sample size, Ramos has struck out at a higher rate (33.3 percent) than he did with the Giants (26.8 percent), which he was quick to point out. “That kind of sucks for me,” he said.“But when I hit it, I hit it.

So I’ve been feeling pretty good.I just have to stay within myself.

I haven’t been chasing a lot, so that’s something I like.I just want to stay positive, stay consistent with it.” The underlying numbers have been more encouraging. On the 15 balls he has put in play as a member of the Yankees, Ramos’ average exit velocity was 93.8 mph, a tick up from his season average (92 mph) that ranks in the 88th percentile.

Of the seven balls he had hit at 95 mph or higher — registering as hard-hit balls — six had gone for outs. “OK, for not having any results, really,” manager Aaron Boone said of...