Not only did the Yankees’ recent losing ways continue with their fourth straight loss on Wednesday night, but an old bugaboo returned in full force.
The double plays were back with a vengeance.
After bouncing into just four double plays during the team’s entire 13-game winning streak, the Yankees grounded into five on Wednesday, their most in a game since September of last season and just the eighth time since 1939 that they have bounced into five in one game, according to the YES Network.
“I didn’t realize there was five tonight,” Anthony Rizzo said. “It’s just part of baseball. I don’t think overall, we put too much emphasis on it. To ground into give in a night is pretty rare. DJ’s comes to mind when he hits it 110 mph right at him. I think we just continue to have good at-bats and guys continue to have good at-bats, and guys continue to put other guys in positions to have success.”
The Yankees were burned by the double play for much of the season, and finally seemed to address it during their historic win streak, thanks to a decrease in ground ball rate and an increase in stolen bases, as the team swiped 11 bases during that run, but haven’t stolen any bags in the four games since.
As a result, more runners on first base and more ground balls has put the Yanks’ double play woes in the spotlight again, as their season total is now up to 122, trailing only the Nationals for the most in all of baseball. They are on pace to fall just six short of the team’s all-time record of 157 in a season.
“[David] Fletcher turned some really impressive double plays out at second,” Aaron Boone said. “Getting to those balls, getting rid of them with a lot on them, because those were some close double plays, he did a great job on those.
“That’s the story. Ultimately, it comes down to we had 10 hits tonight, a number of other walks, a hit batter, so we had our chances. Tonight was a night that we felt like ‘man, we really should have broken it open.’ We hit some balls on the screws…we just couldn’t get that big hit to break it open.”
The Yankees went just 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and managed just four runs despite finishing with double-digit hits thanks to the barrage of double plays. DJ LeMahieu, Joey Gallo, Brett Gardner, and Giancarlo Stanton all hit into a double play on Wednesday. For Gallo, it was his third in the last four games, after he bounced into just six in a five-year span with the Rangers.
“When you’ve got guys on base, especially guys in scoring position, you want to keep the ball off the ground and drive the ball into the outfield,” Gardner said. “The double play I hit was a really good sinker in the bottom of the zone where it was too close to lay off of, but far enough down where I wasn’t able to elevate it. Just have to do a better job of executing what we’re trying to do at the plate.”
The Yanks have lost their last four games by a combined total of six runs, so the double plays have played a major role in deciding these close games, especially on Wednesday. The Yankees can only hope this is a hiccup and not a return to a trend that dominated the early months of the season.
“I think tonight was a case of a few of those balls were really stung,” Boone said. “It’s been something we unfortunately have done a lot of this year. It’s about going up there and having a good at-bat. I feel like that’s happening with our team a lot right now, even through these few games, but sometimes, it’s ‘you gotta put it in play, you gotta put it in play,’ and sometimes putting it in play means you expand a little bit, and that sometimes can turn into weak contact where you put the ball on the ground. We’ve struggled at times because we’ve put the ball on the ground, not the narrative of swing and miss.”
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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