Anthony Rizzo snaps home run drought in hopeful sign for Yankees
NY Post
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It was a long span of 27 games in which Anthony Rizzo did not pull off a swing like this.
Maybe his eighth-inning home run — turning on a John Schreiber sweeper for the Yankees’ first run of the game — was a blip in a lost season.
Or maybe, after nearly five weeks without connecting on a dinger, Rizzo finally has found something and can begin to transform into the Rizzo of old.
“I hope so,” Rizzo said after swatting his first homer since May 10 during a 4-3 loss to the Royals at Kauffman Stadium on Thursday. “Definitely feel like I’m in a better spot — I’ve been feeling that.”
Rizzo was out of the lineup on Sunday and Monday, a decision made by manager Aaron Boone to both clear his first baseman’s head and allow him time to work on his swing.
In the first two games since the benching, Rizzo went 1-for-8.
It was only a three-second glimpse, but Matt Rempe, finally, showcased offensive strides. The ones he started talking about in the preseason — after a summer’s worth of work — and kept doubling down on, even when he fluctuated in and out of the Rangers lineup and shuttled back and forth to AHL Hartford.
In a different time, in a season to come, we may be inclined to wax poetic about the way this one played out. In a different time, in a season to come, the Nets will be seeking to stack wins and not losses, will be fighting for playoff seeding and not for a few extra ping-pong balls in the draft lottery this spring.
The NBA has an All-Star Game problem. Despite Adam Silver’s efforts to inject juice into the February showcase — including a format alteration to the 2025 game that is too confusing to attempt to understand before it’s inevitably changed again — there’s little interest in watching teams eschew defense for a series of layup line highlights. That also means the most entertaining part of the NBA All-Star Game is just like the Pro Bowl — debating over who should get a spot.