Anthony Volpe does not need a loud swing to swing games and make his presence felt.
The Yankees’ shortstop again made winning plays, with his bat, legs and especially with his glove, during a 3-2, 10-inning win over the Angels in The Bronx on Wednesday night.
“Probably his best game all-around so far,” manager Aaron Boone said after a 2-for-4 night in which Volpe walked and pulled off two excellent defensive plays. “I think you got a look of how good of a player he is.”
Volpe’s bat has come around, but his solid glove has not needed to adjust to major league life. Volpe first impressed in the fourth inning, when he stole a hit from Anthony Rendon. The 21-year-old sprinted to his left, slid and made a nice stab at the ball, then quickly returned to his feet to throw out Rendon.
His second standout play emerged to begin the ninth inning of a tie game.
Logan O’Hoppe grounded a shot into the hole, and Volpe took a few steps and grabbed it chest high.
Derek Jeter — to whom Volpe is so often compared — would have leapt, but Volpe stayed grounded and threw in a hurry as his momentum took him onto the outfield grass, getting O’Hoppe at first by a step.
“Every day he’s getting better and better,” said Gleyber Torres, who watched both plays from second base.
Volpe’s defense stood out, but only because strong at-bats and excellent base-running increasingly have become routine.
Volpe reached base three times with a pair of singles — the first in front of Aaron Judge’s first-inning homer, the second the result of a seven-pitch battle with Carlos Estevez in the eighth — and drew a walk.
In the third inning, Volpe took second base when the ball strayed from catcher Matt Thaiss, then swiped third base, improving to eight-for-eight on steals this season.
The rookie’s only slip-up came in the 10th, when he led off the frame by popping up a bunt back to pitcher Matt Moore.
“Special,” Boone said of Volpe, who has reached base safely in seven games straight. “We’re starting to see those at-bats where it’s just like: He’s a load up there. Because he doesn’t chase, makes them work, really stings some balls. Got behind in some counts and battles his way back.”
Carlos Rodon, whose rehab from a left forearm strain has hit a setback with a “barking” back, underwent tests Wednesday that were “pretty normal,” Boone said.
“I do think it’s kind of a minor, nagging thing,” Boone said of Rodon, who threw a two-inning bullpen session Monday but encountered the back issue, which popped up for the first time last week.
Lou Trivino (right elbow strain) threw a live batting practice Monday and is “doing all right,” Boone said. The Yankees are building up the righty slowly because his strain is to his UCL.
If Greg Weissert was discouraged to be back in Triple-A, he didn’t perform like it.
After he was part of the ALCS roster last postseason and may have pitched well enough to make the Yankees out of spring training, Weissert was shipped back to the minors in late March.
His contract still had minor league options, and others’ did not.
Instead of sulking, he allowed one run and struck out seven while notching four saves over 5 ¹/₃ innings for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre because he knew there was only one way back to the top.
“To pitch well,” Weissert said Wednesday. “I put my head down, and that’s all I was focusing on.”
Weissert made his MLB season debut Tuesday. The first batter the Bay Shore native faced was O’Hoppe, a fellow Long Islander (Sayville): The seven-pitch battle between two official rookies (both made their MLB debuts last season) went to O’Hoppe on a walk.
“We gave each other a head nod when I looked up,” said the 28-year-old Wessiert, who is five years older. “It was cool. I don’t know him too well but I know he has a good family, so I’m super happy for him. But I wish I got the best of him.”
Weissert rebounded to retire Taylor Ward.
Repeating that success — not how long he stays in MLB — is his concern.
“It’s so exhausting thinking about it all the time and trying to play the [roster] numbers game,” Weissert said. “I learned early in my career, even at the lower levels, that things change on a whim, and what you think could happen doesn’t happen, and what you think could never happen happens.
“As long as I’m here, I’m going to enjoy my time and help the team win.”
Hiroki Kuroda does not know Shohei Ohtani well.
They don’t have a personal relationship, but Kuroda remembers pitching against the two-way star in NPB.
But if the Yankees need an endorsement for the to-be free agent, perhaps Kuroda could do some recruiting.
Kuroda, who threw out the ceremonial first pitch Wednesday, said Ohtani would love New York.
“I only have great memories here,” Kuroda, a solid Yankees starter from 2012-14, said through a translator before the game. “I think the fans would love him. I think Shohei himself would love it as well.”
Kuroda, who was taking a personal visit to the city, pitched with the Dodgers from 2008-11 and returned to Japan’s Hiroshima Toyo Carp after his stint with the Yankees.
He was on the field pregame talking to several players and Boone.
Ohtani, whose free agency will be fascinating because of his ability as both a hitter and pitcher, has not reached the postseason with the Angels.
“It was a great team to play on, having that playoff experience as well with the Yankees,” said Kuroda, who said New York has “really good” Japanese food. “He’s doing inhuman things basically. [The Yankees would] be a good team to play on.”
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