'Locked in' DJ LeMahieu Sets Sights on .400 With Another Four-Hit Performance

No need for a software update on this machine.

Yankees' second baseman DJ LeMahieu had four hits on Wednesday night, casually boosting his batting average up to .431 on the season (28-for-65).

Not only is that the best clip in all of the American League, but "The Machine" sits comfortably in the top spot on the leaderboard by a landslide. Entering play on Thursday, LeMahieu is close to a full 100 percentage points ahead of Toronto's Bo Bichette who has the second-best average in the AL (.352).

"I feel pretty locked in right now," LeMahieu said. "Just part of a really good lineup and I'm just trying to do my part to get on base. If I get on base, I feel like we're in a good shape to score runs."

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LeMahieu's four-hit performance in a 6-3 win over the Braves was his seventh multi-hit game of the season. Since joining the Yankees last year, the infielder has produced 68 games with at least two base knocks, the most in all of Major League Baseball in that span.

"He's pretty good," Yankees' manager Aaron Boone said. "Obviously starting the year hurrying up to get caught up with the COVID stuff to start. He just picked up where he left off last year, laying the barrel on the ball, just completely setting the tone at the top of the order for us."

After a slow chopper to first base in his first at-bat, Braves pitchers simply couldn't get LeMahieu out. He took an outside fastball through the right side in the second frame, stroked another base hit to right in the fourth, looped a third single to the opposite field in the fifth and capped off his night with a triple off the right-center field wall in the seventh.

4-Hit Machine 🔥 pic.twitter.com/DALMWpNvta
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) August 13, 2020

Remember those conversations before this summer's 60-game season began, asking if it was possible for a player to hit .400 this season? Colorado's Charlie Blackmon is certainly positioning himself to do so with a Major League-leading .472 average through 18 games.

READ: How Will 2020—and the Chase for .400—Be Remembered?

Blackmon's former teammate LeMahieu—who won the National League batting title in 2016 with the Rockies—explained that hitting .400 for the entire season is not something he's focusing on. Baseball's too hard to think about something like that every day.

That said, he believes it's possible.

"I think it's going to be in two months of baseball there's going to be some eye popping stats I think and a lot of surprises," LeMahieu said. "I guess that is the fun part of the 60 games for sure."

Asked if LeMahieu winning a batting title this season would still be a legitimate accomplishment in a truncated season, Boone had his second baseman's back. Besides, think of all the unprecedented circumstances that have been going off the field this year.

"If DJ LeMahieu won the batting title, would anyone question that? I wouldn't," he said. "I mean he's got a pretty good track record of doing that. He's already got one, he almost won another one last year with us."

DJ LeMahieu rips the #Yankees' first triple of the season, caroming off the right-center field wall.

It's his fourth hit of the night and raises his average to .431 (28-for-65).
— Max Goodman (@MaxTGoodman) August 13, 2020

In 2019, LeMahieu was the Yankees most indispensable player. He finished fourth in the AL MVP race, playing 145 games while virtually the entire roster was plagued with injuries. His current contract—a two-year, $24 million deal that in retrospect couldn't be more of a bargain—is up at the conclusion of this season.

Back in Spring Training, LeMahieu confirmed he wants to stay in New York moving forward. Now, seeing as his performance a year ago was far from a fluke, fans are calling for the Yankees to hand LeMahieu a blank check at the season's end.

Rightfully so. For one of the best offenses in all of baseball, LeMahieu has been an ultimate table-setter, producing at a high rate close to every night out of the leadoff spot. As New York approaches the one-third mark in 2020, the 32-year-old has hit safely in all but two of his 17 games played.

"He's a special hitter," Boone said. "Obviously a guy that uses the whole field, has pop, handles righties and lefties, he's a great hitter, tremendous bat-to-ball skills, does a great job laying the bat head in the zone for a really long time."

READ: Yankees' Aaron Judge Kept Out of Lineup With 'Lower Body Tightness'

While fans, coaches and teammates have grown accustomed to LeMahieu spraying base knocks to all parts of the field, it's performances like his spectacular day at the plate on Wednesday that make even LeMahieu stop and say, "wow."

"I work really hard. I try to put myself in the best spots to succeed. So when success happens, I don't say I expect it but I'm also prepared and I expect to succeed," he explained. "But sometimes you just kind of look back after a certain period of time and definitely like wow I can't believe I did that or that."

He may not be thinking about it, but it might be time to start planning where his second career batting title trophy will go in his house. Who knows, he might have a 2020 World Series championship ring to go along with it.

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