NEW YORK – The Yankees waited to promote George Lombard Jr. until they believed their top prospect was ready to handle top-flight pitching, expecting that his swing path and raw power would eventually translate into big results.
Lombard has shown flashes of fulfilling that promise, and with one swing on Wednesday, the 21-year-old shortstop gave the franchise something it hadn’t had all year: a grand slam.
Batting in the third inning against the Rockies’ Tomoyuki Sugano, Lombard took an 86.6 mph slider the opposite way toward right field, where it cleared the wall for a Statcast-projected 353-foot drive.
It was Lombard’s third home run of the season, giving the Yankees a 5-0 lead at the time.
Lombard was 21 years and 99 days old Wednesday, the third youngest a Yankees player has been when hitting a grand slam, older than only Mickey Mantle (20 years, 280 days) on July 26, 1952, at the Tigers, and Mantle again (20 years, 283 days) on July 29, 1952, at the White Sox.
Entering Wednesday, the Yankees were one of two Major League teams to have not hit a grand slam this season. The Brewers still have yet to hit one.
Before Lombard’s slam, the Yankees’ most recent grand slam was hit by Ben Rice, last Sept. 21 vs. the Orioles.