Jasson

Dominguez

Domínguez finds himself batting sixth during Sunday’s first-half finale with veteran Paul Goldschmidt moving up to the leadoff spot to face formidable Cubs southpaw Shota Imanaga. Ben Rice is on the bench for the second consecutive game against a left-hander. The other notable development here is that red-hot Cody Bellinger is batting second once again to close out the first half.

You hit three homers, and have the potential fourth round-tripper stolen by a brilliant defensive play, you get to bat second in the ensuing contest. Those are the rules. Bellinger has been sizzling-hot at the dish over the final handful of first-half contests, batting .464 (13-for-28) with four homers and 10 RBI over his last seven games. Jasson Domínguez takes a seat with Bellinger patrolling left field and Trent Grisham in center field on Saturday against Cubs lefty Matthew Boyd.

Domínguez was 0-for-9 in his previous two games, but he’s still been much more good than bad of late, going 19-for-48 with seven extra-base hits, nine runs scored and four steals in his last 11 games. He was thrown out stealing tonight for just the second time in 16 attempts this season.

Grisham will sit for the second consecutive game against Seattle, with Jasson Dominguez playing in his absence against Logan Evans and the Seattle bullpen.

Domínguez has been moved up to the top of New York’s batting order to face Mariners ace Logan Gilbert after hitting .392 (20-for-51) with two homers and four steals over his last 15 games. The 22-year-old former top prospect has legitimately been one of the hottest hitters in baseball of late and will aim to carry that momentum through next week’s All-Star break into the stretch run.

Domínguez takes a seat with Cody Bellinger in left field with the Mets rolling out a bullpen game on Sunday afternoon. It’ll be Paul Goldschmidt at first base over Ben Rice. The 22-year-old former top prospect has been sizzling-hot at the dish of late and should come off the bench at some point in the contest.

Trent Grisham is in the leadoff spot on Saturday afternoon, but Domínguez figures to continue getting chances atop New York’s lineup after going 2-for-4 with two homers and a stolen base out of the top spot during Friday’s contest at Citi Field. The 22-year-old former top prospect has legitimately been one of the hottest hitters in baseball recently, hitting .400 (12-for-30) with two homers, six RBI and two steals over his last seven games.

Working as the lead-off hitter for just the second time this season, Domínguez made his presence felt with a home run as the first batter of the game. That was somehow his first home run since all the way back on May 21st. He hit another in the fifth that again gave the Yankees a lead before their bullpen blew it later on. He also grounded out to make the final out in this game with Aaron Judge stranded on deck. Despite the lack of home run power to this point, he’s stolen 14 bases and has a .273 batting average with a .783 OPS. Those are solid marks to hang one’s hat on just past the halfway point of the season.

A hot streak would be huge for Domínguez, who, thanks in part to injuries to Trent Grisham and Austin Wells, has gotten to start three games in a row after being excluded from the starting lineup in four of the previous eight games. He’s 14-for-31 in his last seven contests, raising his OPS from .709 to .752.

The Yankees were probably better off with Giancarlo Stanton on the IL. Domínguez has started just three of the team’s last six games, none of them consecutively. Worse, two of those, including today, were against lefties, and the switch-hitter is batting just .194/.289/.306 against them, compared to .277/.360/.432 against righties. He had a big game Wednesday, going 4-for-5, in his only start against a righty all week; he sat against them both Tuesday and Friday. The Yankees had enough trouble finding at-bats for everyone before Stanton returned, and starting Domínguez, Paul Goldschmidt and Ben Rice all about half of the time isn’t doing anyone any good, except for maybe the Blue Jays and Rays.