NEW YORK – One of the beauties of baseball is that all major-league stadium configurations are different, just like the weather and elements in the accompanying locales, so it does no good to waste time fretting over whether a ball that reaches the so-called “short porch” in the Bronx would clear the giant brick wall in San Francisco. Or vice versa.
The facts most relevant to the Giants on Sunday are these: The balls Jung Hoo Lee hit in the fourth and sixth innings at Yankee Stadium were home runs. Period. That became clear the moment each landed in the right-field bleachers, known as the short porch because it’s so close to home plate (314 feet down the line), making it a relatively easy target for left-handed batters.
Lee hit his first three homers of the season in the weekend series, all to right field. the first coming Friday in the Giants’ 9-1, rain-shortened win and two more coming in Sunday’s 5-4 victory that gave the Giants their first series win at Yankee Stadium since the advent of interleague play.
“Back when I used to play in Korea, I heard a lot about Yankee Stadium and the Yankees,” Lee said through interpreter Justin Han. “So coming over here and playing against them was really fun to do.”
Logan Webb’s early ineffectiveness put the Giants in a 3-0 hole, but Lee’s solo homer and three-run shot gave them a 4-3 lead. Christian Koss got his first major-league hit. Luis Matos robbed Paul Goldschmidt of a home run. And closer Ryan Walker ended the game by sneaking a 96 mph sinker past the mighty Aaron Judge.
The Giants are 11-4, their best 15-game start since 2003. They’ve played five series and won four, including this visit to Yankee Stadium, which left fans with the indelible memory of Lee’s first power display as a Giant.
“The results are talking on behalf of me,” Lee said when asked about the joy of hitting in the Bronx.
Statcast, Major League Baseball’s tracking system, has a metric that determines in how many of the 30 ballparks a long fly ball would be a home run.
Lee’s homer in the opener traveled 387 feet, and Statcast claimed it would have been a homer in just 10 of 30 big-league parks. His first homer Sunday, traveling 406 feet, would have been a homer in 29 of the 30 parks – of course, all but Oracle Park, where homers to right-center go to die. The final homer, which traveled a mere 363 feet, would have been a homer in only eight parks.
Not that any of it matters. All that matters is Lee’s homers enabled the Giants to pull off another series win before they flew to Philadelphia for a four-game set. The center fielder and No. 3 hitter is now batting .352 with an 1.130 OPS and majors-leading eight doubles.
Lee said he repeatedly tried going up the middle but got the right pitches to pull from former Giant Carlos Rodon, a slider and curveball. It was especially significant considering the lefty-swinging Lee was facing a left-handed pitcher and that Rodon, who’s in his 11th season, had surrendered just 19 homers to lefties before Sunday.
Nevertheless, a homer is a homer no matter the ballpark. This is the third variation of Yankee Stadium, and all three have been friendly to lefty hitters from Babe Ruth to Lou Gehrig to Yogi Berra to Mickey Mantle (a switch-hitter) to Roger Maris to Reggie Jackson to Don Mattingly to the lefties from Joe Torre’s championship era to the lefties who visited through the years.
“If you’re a left-handed hitter and come into this ballpark, you kind of lick your chops a bit,” manager Bob Melvin said.
Lee’s homers not only turned a deficit into a lead but put Webb on track to earn the win. He’s 2-0 and appreciative that Lee is his teammate.
“His first at-bat at Yankee Stadium, you’d think he’d go up there and be nervous, and he goes up there and hits a home run,” Webb said. “I don’t think he’s afraid of the spotlight. You watch baseball in Korea, it’s a loud environment. I don’t think that’ll ever impact him. He’s used to that. That’s a plus for us. I don’t think anything bothers him.”
Lee played just 37 games last season because of a season-ending shoulder injury he sustained last May and is grateful for his health and the opportunity to play regularly.
“Everything I’m doing right now is all about giving back to the Giants,” he said. “Throughout rehab, the team helped out so much and supported me in many ways. They took me to the road games. Also during rehab in the offseason, the team was great. So it’s all about giving back to the team.”
Short porch or no short porch.