Unheralded to indispensable: Gio's journey

NEW YORK -- Gio Urshela's emergence has provided some of the Yankees' most delightful surprises, and the quick-thinking infielder continued his dream season with a pivotal hook slide on Sunday afternoon that provided the go-ahead run in yet another series victory.

Dashing toward home plate on a fifth-inning wild pitch, Urshela deftly snuck his left foot past a lunging tag attempt from catcher Danny Jansen to give New York a lead it would not relinquish. Urshela also roped a two-run single and Mike Tauchman homered as the Yankees defeated the Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium, 4-2, improving to 12-0-1 in their last 13 home series.

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"We wouldn’t be in first place right now if we didn’t have Gio," Aaron Judge said. "The changes he made this offseason, the adjustments he made, it’s finally showing and paying off. There's no other place I’d have him be. He’s something special defensively and offensively; just get him up there with guys on base, he gets the job done."

Largely overlooked in spring camp, Urshela's stock surged after taking over as the starting third baseman in April. Having earned a reputation as a slick defender during his previous big league stops, Urshela modified his batting stance and has improved his pitch selection, yielding terrific results.

"Every time I go out there, it's very fun playing for this team," Urshela said. "Since Spring Training when I got here, it's really fun. It's really great being here."

Urshela's stance changes took root last year at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, where he completed the season after being acquired from Toronto in an unheralded August trade. At the urging of hitting coach Phil Plantier, Urshela focused on balancing his weight in his legs, which has helped him make louder contact while spraying the ball from gap to gap.

"When he was coming up through the Minor Leagues, he was always a guy that made good contact, which can be a really good sign," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. "Sometimes that takes a while to blossom. I’m sure there’s a lot of people that followed his Minor League career that aren’t surprised that he’s starting to swing the bat now at the Major League level."

Facing Toronto ace Marcus Stroman in the second inning, Urshela worked the count to 2-1, then smacked a 94.2 mph fastball through the left side of the infield.

That chased home Luke Voit and Gleyber Torres with the first runs of the afternoon. It was the brand of pressurized opportunity in which Urshela has flourished this season; with runners in scoring position, the 27-year-old has batted .362 (21-for-58) while collecting 30 RBIs.

"It means I'm doing good stuff for the team," Urshela said. "I'm always trying to do it, every day."

Toronto evened the score in the fifth inning as Randal Grichuk and Eric Sogard slugged solo homers off Masahiro Tanaka, but Urshela's heady footwork put New York back on top in the home half of the frame.

Working with two outs and runners at second and third, Stroman uncorked a 94 mph, 1-1 fastball to Judge that sailed well outside, then hit the backstop and caromed unexpectedly to Jansen. As the catcher scrambled, Urshela aimed his left foot toward the front of home plate.

"When I was running toward the plate, I was like, 'I've got to do something to make it safe,'" Urshela said. "I was trying to sneak around the glove. The ball bounced quickly to the glove. I tried to make a good slide."

Though Urshela was initially called out by umpire Ryan Blakney, the Yankees had the call overturned by review. Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said that Jansen could have applied a better tag. Jansen agreed, saying that he should have thrown his body in front of the plate, but Stroman said he was impressed with Urshela's athleticism.

"Just a crazy good slide by Gio Urshela," Stroman said. "It was just one of those slides where he kind of avoided him and just slid his left leg in there. It was just one of those plays that in the moment it’s hard, but Jano did a great job, just couldn’t get the tag down."

Tanaka scattered four hits, walking none and striking out five to pick up the victory, outdueling Stroman, a Medford, N.Y. product who has been mentioned as a possible Yankees trade target. If so, the audition went fine; Stroman permitted seven hits and two walks over six innings, striking out seven.

Tauchman, who stole an extra-base hit from Cavan Biggio with a diving catch to open the sixth inning, padded the Yankees’ advantage in the seventh with a solo homer off Derek Law. Aroldis Chapman worked a perfect ninth inning for his 25th save.

"That group in there is capable of being the best team in baseball; capable of being the best team in the world," Boone said.