NEW YORK -- A little while after the Trade Deadline, George Lombard Jr.’s first career hit left his bat with an exit velocity of 100.2 mph, landed nearly 400 feet away in the left-center-field bleachers and made him the third-youngest player in Yankees history to homer in his MLB debut. It was among the most emphatic arrivals to the Majors that a player could picture for himself.
On Tuesday night, Lombard’s latest entrance into the Yankees’ history books in Game 1 of the American League Wild Card Series was a tad quieter -- a bloop single that lilted softly into shallow center field. But his second-inning knock, the catalyst for New York’s 9-0 win over Boston at Yankee Stadium, likely felt just as sweet as any titanic blast could.
And even if there was a touch of nervousness in the young shortstop’s chest, it was hard to tell once the first pitch was thrown.
“I think those ‘excitement butterflies’ were there a little bit, like during the intros, and going out there,” Lombard said. “But once the game started, I was just kind of locked in and having fun.”
At 21 years and 119 days old, Lombard singled to become the youngest player in Yankees history to record a hit in his postseason debut, winning a seven-pitch battle against Red Sox lefty Payton Tolle. After a pair of singles, punctuated by Austin Wells’ two-out RBI knock, Lombard came around to score to get New York on the board early, giving starter Cam Schlittler all the cushion he would need.
In his next at-bat, Lombard poked a grounder between the third baseman and shortstop for an infield single. The fourth-inning knock then made him the second-youngest player in postseason history with a hit in each of his first two plate appearances. The dream start would have been cemented with another positive ending to his trip around the bases; however, Lombard wandered too far off second base on Spencer Jones’ lineout to the third baseman and was doubled off.
Lombard’s last at-bat in the eighth inning produced the loudest contact of the night. He crushed a 3-1 fastball off the right-center-field wall with an exit velocity of 108.6 mph for a long single, his third hit of the game. With that, he also became the second-youngest player in postseason history with three hits in his postseason debut, with only Gregg Jefferies (21 years, 64 days) ahead of him in Game 1 of the 1988 NL Championship Series.
Lombard finished the evening 3-for-4 with two runs scored, and he made the play on every fielding opportunity he had, each feeling routine as one would like.
Since Lombard burst into the big leagues with a loud blast and dazzling defense, his age has been a constant source of intrigue. He already grabbed the title of becoming the youngest player to start at shortstop for the Yankees in a postseason game when he stepped onto the field (breaking a 94-year record held by Frankie Crosetti from the 1932 World Series). When he made his debut back on Aug. 4, the only shortstop more fresh-faced than him to play the position in New York was Derek Jeter in 1995.
“It’s definitely an honor, and I have to pinch myself every now and then,” Lombard said. “But we know what the goal is, and what we’re all trying to do as a group. So it’s easy to focus on that and continue to get my work in and compete every day.”
But Lombard’s regular-season cameo was far from smooth sailing. There was the stretch from Aug. 21-27 when he made an error in six consecutive contests. He hit only .219 in September, a bit of a dip from the .253 average he notched in his debut month (though his OPS was 54 points higher during that September run).
Still, there didn’t seem to be a time when Lombard felt out of place or overwhelmed, or a reason to quell the excitement around the 21-year-old. He was building up a tolerance to the big leagues, one that seems to have prepared him for the entropy of the postseason excitement.
“Just watching him go through it all this couple of months, how he's handled himself, how he's handled success and fallen down,” manager Aaron Boone said on Monday’s off-day workout. “I feel like he's totally equipped for it.”
“I mean, that’s the name of the game up here, being able to bounce back, being resilient -- whatever happens,” Lombard said. “Obviously, you never know what can happen on the field, the goods and the bads, especially when there’s a lot of eyes on you every single day. So just lean on your teammates, lean on the guys in the clubhouse, lean on your circle, and just be resilient. Go out there every day and do your job.”