Thanks to home runs by Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez, the Yankees were able to not only avoid the doubleheader sweep on Thursday night, but also bailed out more baserunning blunders to add to their inflated season total.
Leading 5-3 in the bottom of the sixth of a seven-inning game, the Yanks sought insurance when Estevan Florial ripped a double off the wall in left center. Carlos Mendoza, filling in for Phil Nevin as the third base coach, sent Gary Sanchez home from first base, only for the already-slow Sanchez to be thrown out by a mile.
Thankfully for the Yanks, they hung on for the win without their closer Aroldis Chapman, who was out with illness, and Aaron Boone was able to have some fun with Mendoza after the game.
“The nice thing is we won the game,” Boone said on his weekly segment with Carton & Roberts. “So I walked in the coach’s room right after and threw up my hands like the stop sign.”
While Boone was able to have some fun with Mendoza after the game, the team’s problems on the basepaths have been no laughing matter. Sanchez’s out at the plate was the team’s 25th out on the basepaths so far this season, and the 12th out to happen at home plate.
Both of those numbers are the highest in Major League Baseball.
“It’s been something that’s been unacceptable for us,” Boone said. “Even though were not a team that’s very fast or gonna league the lead in stolen bases or things like that, which has been the case the last few years, the one thing we’ve been good at is not only not making a lot of outs on the bases, but taking the extra base.”
The Yankees haven’t shown that same baserunning IQ this season, which has been even more costly than it may have been in years past given how they offense has failed to live up to its typical production, and any baserunner is especially coveted. But too many have been retired by their own blunders, which the Yankees will have to improve if they are to get to the top of the AL East.
“There is a time to gamble and there is a time to push the envelope, even though there’s a risk,” Boone said. “That’s something we’ve done pretty well over the last few years, but something over the first two months this year we have not done well at all.”
Judge was thrown out at home earlier in the game, but on a much more justifiable send. The Sanchez send was clearly a misjudgment, but the Yankees baserunners have ran into plenty of outs on their own this season, and it’s become a focal point for Boone to improve upon.
“It’s things we work on in spring training to prepare for all these situations, but we haven’t executed well in that regard and its something we have to tighten up and continue to get better.”
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