{"id":356354,"date":"2026-09-25T03:12:47","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T03:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/356354\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T03:12:47","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T03:12:47","slug":"george-lombard-jr-s-highlight-making-slide-sparks-a-yankees-rally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/356354\/","title":{"rendered":"George Lombard Jr.&#8217;s highlight-making slide sparks a Yankees rally"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Coming up through the Yankees\u2019 system, George Lombard Jr. wowed as much with his athleticism and winning plays as he did with his bat and glove.<\/p>\n<p>One of those athletic, winning plays showed up in the majors on Thursday in a fun highlight in a game that did not matter much.<\/p>\n<p>A slide both inventive and impressive helped the Yankees score a run in the seventh inning against the Rays in The Bronx, where the rookie shortstop awakened a crowd that was watching essentially an exhibition after the Rays already had clinched the division.<\/p>\n<p>Lombard was on third base when Tampa Bay\u2019s Brody Hopkins unleashed a wild pitch that bounced off the backstop but right back to catcher Liam Hicks. <\/p>\n<p>Hicks took a few steps toward the ball, spun around and dove to the plate, beating Lombard easily.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   data-modal-image=\"40982456\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/George-Lombard-Jr-1.jpg\" alt=\"George Lombard Jr. avoids Liam Hicks tag attempt on an inventive slide to score a run in the seventh inning of the Yankees-Rays game on Sept. 24, 2026 in The Bronx.\" class=\"wp-image-40982456\"\/>George Lombard Jr. avoids Liam Hicks tag attempt on an inventive slide to score a run in the seventh inning of the Yankees-Rays game on Sept. 24, 2026 in The Bronx. Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>But Lombard had begun a feet-first slide that he then abandoned once he saw Hicks, too, was on the ground. <\/p>\n<p>In one motion, Lombard scrambled to his feet, took a step and tumbled over the plate and Hicks, dragging his right hand on the plate to cut the deficit to 4-3.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   data-modal-image=\"40982501\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/george-lombard-jr-96-new-142413935.jpg\" alt=\"George Lombard Jr. avoids a tag by Liam Hicks of the Tampa Bay Rays to score a run.\" class=\"wp-image-40982501\"\/>George Lombard Jr. of the New York Yankees avoids a tag by Liam Hicks of the Tampa Bay Rays to score a run during the seventh inning of a game at Yankee Stadium in New York on Sept. 24, 2026. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>He then jogged into a Yankees dugout that was filled with smiling faces who had just witnessed a slide and tumble that few had seen before.<\/p>\n<p>Lombard continued his heroics in the eighth inning after belting his seventh home run of the season to left field, giving the Yankees a 6-4 lead. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coming up through the Yankees\u2019 system, George Lombard Jr. wowed as much with his athleticism and winning plays&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,71821,20,9,24,321,63,319,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-356354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-george-lombard-jr","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-nyc","tag-sports","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}