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The legend of Luke Voit grows as he helps Yankees advance to ALDS

Mike Oz

There are guys on the New York Yankees who are supposed to be offensive juggernauts. Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Gary Sánchez — those guys are supposed to hit big homers and delivery in my key moments. And then there’s Luke Voit.

Voit is a 27-year-old first baseman who played eight games for the St. Louis Cardinals this season before they traded him to the Yankees in July. It wouldn’t be an insult to say that Voit was an afterthought — it was him and some international bonus money, and the Yankees might have been more excited about the money.

And then a folk hero was born. Voit was thrust into action with the Yankees and, wouldn’t you know it, he raked. In 39 games, he hit 14 homers, drove in 33 runs and got on base 40 percent of the time. That brings us to Wednesday night’s American League wild-card win against the Oakland Athletics where of course Voit found the spotlight. It wasn’t Aaron Judge’s monster first-inning homer, but it was still something special.

Luke Voit celebrates after his RBI triple in the ALwild-card game Wednesday night. (Getty Images)
Luke Voit celebrates after his RBI triple in the ALwild-card game Wednesday night. (Getty Images)

In the sixth inning, with the Yankees up 3-0, Voit battled through a nine-pitch at-bat against A’s reliever Blake Treinen, one of the best in baseball this season, and ended up blasting a pitch to the right-field wall. Stephen Piscotty tried but couldn’t catch it and Voit brought home two runs with a triple.

“I just never thought I’d play for the Yankees and now I’m playing center stage in the world and I’m having the time of my life,” Voit told Newsday’s Laura Albanese after the game.

The ultimate compliment? He got called Luke Gehrig.

Voit would then come around to score on a sac fly to make the score 6-0. That play wasn’t without controversy, as it went to review to see if Voit was able to avoid a tag.

He was. Because, as it turns out, Luke Voit can’t be stopped.

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Mike Oz is a writer at Yahoo Sports. Contact him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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