Watch Mo Vaughn gingerly move around the visiting clubhouse at Yankee Stadium with ice on his ankle, or notice how he winces in pain when he swings a bat, hopping on that bad left ankle, and it’s clear the Angels’ All-Star first baseman is far from 100 percent.
But 60 percent of Vaughn is better than 100 percent of most. And if the Bombers had forgotten that fact, he reminded them last night. Still hobbled with the same bruised bones and sprained ligaments that sent him to the DL earlier this season, Vaughn continued to terrorize Yankee pitching, the same way he did for years with the archrival Red Sox.
The Seton Hall product and Norwalk (Conn.) native went 3-for-5 with two runs scored, four RBIs and a mammoth home run into the right-field bleachers to carry his last-place Angels past the Bombers 9-7 last night at the Stadium.
“He’s a leader. He knows how to win,” said manager Terry Collins. “He lives to be in the spotlight. He lives to have the game on his shoulders.”
Vaughn’s broad shoulders have never been the problem; it’s his left ankle that is causing all the pain.
After leaving Boston and inking a six-year, $80 million contract with Anaheim, the Angels had his services for less than an inning before he injured the ankle chasing a popup into the Cleveland dugout on Opening Day. He played five more innings before leaving in the sixth and going on the DL.
Vaughn missed 14 games, but on the first pitch he saw after returning, he crushed a 451-foot home run. He’s hit five since coming back on April 22, including last night’s punishment of Yankee pitching.
He had an RBI double over Bernie Williams’ head in center and scored in the first inning. And then, after Andy Pettitte fell behind Vaughn 3-0 with two men on in the fourth, Pettitte decided not to walk him, and Vaughn made him pay. After taking a strike, he crushed a high, towering, three-run shot into the bleachers, his 25th career homer vs. the Yanks. The Angels never trailed after that.
Still, Vaughn clearly isn’t at his best. He can’t put weight on his back leg while batting, and his swing is all upper-body. Not that the 6-foot-1, 245-pounder’s upper body is lacking, but was hitting just .246 entering last night, and an uncharacteristic .188 with runners in scoring position. He even suffered through an ignominious 1-for-11, six-strikeout performance when his Angel team got swept by his old Red Sox team over the weekend.
“Pain, man,” is how Vaughn described his condition. “A pain in the [butt], to tell you the truth. All day, every day. I’ve got a lot of injuries nagging me, but it’s just part of the game. When we get everybody healthy, we’ll be a better ballclub, no doubt about it. This team has the opportunity to win this division; it’s a good young solid team, even though we haven’t shown it at all yet. When we get our act together, we’ll be able to win.”