You can’t pin the Yankees’ Game 2 loss on one specific thing, but there was certainly one play in the tenth that didn’t help: Josh Donaldson’s throw to second base on Jose Ramirez’s blooper that dropped in between Donaldson and Oswaldo Cabrera, an errant throw that allowed Ramirez to get to third with no one out.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone was, after the game, a little forgiving.
“I'd have to look back at it. If it's not on target, maybe. You guys know better than me. I haven't re-looked at the play,” Boone said when asked if he thought Donaldson potentially had a play. “But I think you see him going up for a second there, and, you know, I thought he was quick to recognize it. I thought it was heads-up. If it's going to be close, you go for it. You trust yourself to make that throw.”
A bloop single by Oscar Gonzalez and a Josh Naylor double tacked on two runs before the Yankees got an out in the tenth, so maybe that run would’ve scored anyway, but it could’ve changed some things had Ramirez simply been on second.
“We were both going for it and I saw out of the corner of my eye (Cabrera) was coming full speed ahead, so I kind of backed off and the ball stayed close,” Donaldson explained. “I thought I had a chance at second, but I pulled the throw a little bit trying to make a play, and Jose does what he does.”
The problem? In hindsight, even Donaldson seems to think throwing was the wrong choice, yet defended his action.
“I think it would have been bang-bang, even if I made a really good throw,” he said. “In the moment, I thought I had a chance. But, I didn’t make a great throw. At the end of the day I was trying to make a play.
I’ll live with that.”
And at the end of the day, it was a second straight game with a potentially costly blunder, following his Game 1 moment where Donaldson was thrown out at second after thinking he had hit a home run.
The Yankees were able to pick him up there, but could not on Friday, leading to the ALDS now heading to Cleveland as a virtual best-of-three.
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
Listen live to WFAN via:
Audacy App | Online Stream | Smart Speaker
Follow WFAN on Social Media:
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Twitch
