Aroldis Chapman’s blown save will be the memory of the Yankees’ 3-2 walk-off loss Saturday night, but Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s baserunning mistake in the top of the ninth will certainly be one remembered as a play that didn’t help Chapman and the Yankees.
The Yankees, trailing 2-1 at the time, had second and third with no one out when Kyle Higashioka lifted a sacrifice fly to left field. Both Joey Gallo and IKF tagged up and tried to advance on A.J. Pollock’s throw, but Yoan Moncada cut it off with a leaping grab and flipped to Tim Anderson at third to easily get Kiner-Falefa trying to advance – turning a situation with a runner in scoring position and one out into a two-out, nobody on scenario for leadoff hitter D.J. LeMahieu.
Manager Aaron Boone didn’t have a problem with the idea of the play, but the execution hamstrung the Yankees.
“He has to be tagging up, and then it’s a read. If you read the ball is going to go over the cutoff man, you have to get to third with less than two outs. Otherwise, you have to tag, read it, and go back,” Boone said. “I think he saw it come out of Pollock’s hand high and thought he could get there, but you have to make sure you see it over the cutoff man and that’s when you move to third.”
IKF’s take is exactly what Boone said.
“Bad read. I thought he was going to try to make a play at the plate, I saw the ball up in the air, but the third baseman made a nice play and jumped up and got it and threw me out,” Kiner-Falefa said. “I have to know the situation better. I was already in scoring position, so it was a bad read.
Happy we tied the game, but that can’t happen.”
Kiner-Falefa has been thrown out on the bases in a similar situation before, although the most recent one was hum trying to make sure the run scored. This time, it didn’t appear from the replays that Gallo would’ve been in danger of being thrown out, and IKF noted he was trying to “get on third for the top of the order, not get thrown out to score the run.”
Unfortunately, instead of LeMahieu coming up with a runner on second and one out – a situation where the White Sox may have walked DJLM to set up a double play/force plays – LeMahieu came up with two outs and no one on, struck out, and left Aaron Judge on deck before Chicago won it in the bottom of the ninth.
And, the only thing IKF and the Yankees can do is live and learn.
“Any time we have the top of the order up with runners in scoring position, you can’t get thrown out at third,” Kiner-Falefa said. “It was a bonehead play, bad read, and it won’t happen again.”
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
