NEW YORK – The brighter the spotlight on his individual efforts, the softer Anthony Volpe’s voice becomes.

When the Yankees shortstop is asked about his performance in a given game, he tends to shrug off the magnitude of his heroics before turning the spotlight on his teammates. That’s how it went late Tuesday night, moments after he hit a grand slam for his first career playoff home run and was brought into the Yankees’ press conference room to talk about it.

Although this wasn’t just a typical grand slam — it gave the Yankees a much-needed early lead over the Dodgers in an elimination Game 4 of the World Series — Volpe sat on the podium with the same shy demeanor and soft voice. which he has showcased since his Major League debut last year. It wasn’t until he was asked to trace his Yankees fandom that the 23-year-old sat a little straighter and looked more confident and confident in front of the cameras and bright lights.

“My grandfather, the Yankees are more than just a team or an organization to him,” Volpe said. “Because his father fought in World War II when he was little, and by the time he came back, his mother actually said to him, ‘This is your father.’ He didn’t know him, didn’t recognize him, didn’t know anything. The way he said it, the way he met and got to know his father, was that he sat on his lap every night, and she. We listened to the Yankees together. So for him it’s more than just sport.”

It’s a story he’s told before, but never on the biggest national stage, when there’s more attention and focus on the second-year shortstop than he’s ever experienced. Volpe’s shy nature means we may never know, at least not for a while, how much this grand slam, which led to an 11-4 win, actually meant to him. But when you see him talk more about his teammates’ achievements than his own, and hear him tell the story about how much the Yankees organization means to his family, it’s easy to see that Volpe’s driving force as an athlete is focused on working hard for the people around him. it.

If they win, so does he.

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“I love him, he’s like a little brother to me,” Anthony Rizzo said of Volpe. “He works so hard. He cares so much about his teammates. He never really gets into trouble. So for him to have that moment in the World Series, being a hometown kid, it’s pretty special.”

The Yankees forced a Game 5 against the Dodgers, not at the hands of Juan Soto, Aaron Judge or Giancarlo Stanton. On a chilly Tuesday night in the Bronx, it was the Baby Bombers who came through in the most important game of their careers to date.

After Volpe, Yankees rookie catcher Austin Wells is the third-youngest player on the Yankees’ World Series roster. He was 0-for-8 at the plate in the Fall Classic when Yankees manager Aaron Boone benched him for Game 3. Rizzo said it was difficult for Wells to watch from the dugout, especially since the Yankees trailed 3-0 in the Series. , but it only made the way he responded on Tuesday that much more impactful.

Wells ripped a 400-foot double from the center field fill in his first at-bat of the night, then crushed a solo shot to right field to open the sixth. Not only did the rookie’s second home run of the postseason double a Yankees lead that had been cut to one, it reminded the 49,354 fans in attendance that no matter how this World Series ends, the Yankees’ future will be bright behind Volpe and Wells. .

“It’s not really a friendship anymore. It’s a brotherhood,” Volpe said of his relationship with Wells. “We’ve been through it all together. The highest of highs, and at some point the lowest of the lows. He’s my first call, my last call. I know he’s got my back through thick and thin. To take a moment like it’s special for him to experience such a moment, but to do it together, you can’t trade it for anything.”

The Yankees catcher echoed Volpe’s sentiment, adding that as soon as he got to know the shortstop in the Yankees’ minor league system, it was clear to him that they had the same goals: to be able to contribute to a historic franchise. Neither of them necessarily wanted to be superstars. They just wanted to help the Yankees win another title, even if they only made a modest contribution. Unfortunately, Volpe’s at-bat was anything but.

Wells said Volpe’s grand slam in the third inning – which followed a second two-run home run by Freddie Freeman in the first – allowed the Yankees to take a deep breath, relax and enjoy playing baseball. He said his teammates were just waiting for that “one big swing” to break out of the funk that had marked three consecutive World Series losses.

“I think in the situation we were in, we just had to say ‘fuck it,’ get after it and have fun because some guys might never get back to the World Series again,” Wells said. “So just enjoy the game, and I think that allowed us to play a lot looser tonight.”

It is now known that Volpe grew up in New Jersey, where he supported the Bronx Bombers and idolized Derek Jeter. Now effectively in Jeter’s shoes, the pressure to excel at the highest level, for the world’s largest media market, may be on while he is investigated for every misunderstanding, big or small. Perhaps some of the tension got to Volpe in the second inning, when he misread Wells’ long double and appeared to tap from second before being forced to stay at third.

Volpe finally hit home plate on Alex Verdugo’s RBI groundout, and he more than made up for his blunder with his grand slam. But he still took responsibility after the match: “That’s entirely up to me.” Initially frustrated with himself, Volpe relaxed after his teammates reminded him through their own excellent at-bats in Game 4 that they would pick him up.

Sometimes his calm demeanor makes him come across as one of the most serious guys on the Yankees roster. But left-hander Nestor Cortes set the record straight.

“He’s got a little fire in him. A little spice,” Cortes said. “He’s a little brash. He’s getting a little slicker, which is good. It’s good for him. He emerged as a highly touted prospect. A lot of people expected him to be the next Jeter. That’s very hard to do I think he’s going to be a really good player – he already is. But I think he’s going to embrace who he is and write his own story and chapter here.

Volpe has been outstanding in this postseason, even before becoming the fourth-youngest player to hit a grand slam in the World Series. He entered the Fall Classic hitting .310 with eight walks, six runs scored and an .804 OPS in nine playoff games. Now the shortstop is the Yankees World Series RBI leader with five. More importantly, he is the biggest reason there will be a Game 5 of the World Series on Wednesday.

Maybe as he records more moments like his grand slam, he will stand up a little taller, speak a little louder and come out of his shell.

But what Volpe has shown us so far in his young career is that he doesn’t need the big spotlight or the outrageous comparisons to a Yankees Hall of Famer to advocate for his team.

He just has to be himself.

“The more he does it, the more he has to go out and talk,” Cortes said. “The more he becomes the player of the game, I think you’ll see his personality a little bit more.”

Deesha Thosar is an MLB reporter for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.

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