The Yankees dropped another close game on Wednesday, falling 5-4 on a walk-off home run by Bo Bichette in the bottom of the ninth to drop their third of four series to start the season.
The offense once again struggled to break out, falling into a 1-for-15 stretch to end the game, while the bullpen did its best to bail out its starter in Corey Kluber, who couldn’t pitch into the fifth inning. Despite the continued struggles from the bats and the starters not named Gerrit Cole, the team was still in position to steal a win.
But once again, defense and fundamentals proved to be a major factor between a win and a loss.
The Yankees managed to avoid any errors on Wednesday, but with a one-run lead in the bottom of the sixth, a Jonathan Loaisiga breaking ball scooted under the glove of Kyle Higashioka and to the backstop, allowing Rowdy Tellez to score the tying run and set up Bichette to be the hero in the ninth.
It was ruled a wild pitch on Loasiga, but Higashioka tried to field the low pitch without turning his glove over, contributing to the miscue and the blown lead.
Loasigia otherwise navigated out of what had been a bases loaded, no out jam.
“We gotta play better in every area,” Aaron Boone said after Wednesday’s loss. “There’s some mistakes we’re making. The pen has done a really nice job for us.”
On Tuesday night, Gary Sanchez ended a rally with a baserunning blunder that otherwise would have brought a red-hot Aaron Hicks to the plate as the tying run, while numerous defensive miscues have already cost the team runs in the early going. Between Jay Bruce’s shaky transition to first base and Gleyber Torres’ identical situation as the everyday shortstop, the Yanks continue to burn themselves at a time where they need to be as sharp as ever until the offense breaks out of its funk.
“It’s the little things,” Aaron Judge said. “I look back to either baserunning mistakes, mistakes in the outfield, not coming up with a clutch hit and taking a single when we can, there’s a bunch of things.”
Judge made a miscue of his own in right field when a ball off the bat of Cavan Biggio skipped past his glove and all the way to the right field wall, but Judge fired into third to nab Biggio in a rundown between third and home to avoid disaster. But it was another piece of evidence that the defense has to be better, especially while the starting rotation continues to struggle to go deep into games.
“When we’re not banging, you have to do the little things really well,” Boone said. “That’s catch the ball, run the bases. We know eventually we are gonna start banging. I have a ton of confidence in our guys, and I can’t wait see them turn the corner. But in the meantime, especially when you’re in these dogfights and can’t break things open, you have to play clean.”
The Yankees have been anything but clean to start the season, and the result has been a 5-7 start. They believe they will finally break out and the bats will be able to cover any fundamental mistakes along the way, but until then, close losses like Wednesday afternoon are hard to swallow.
“I don’t think anybody is happy right now,” Judge said. “We take a lot of pride in our craft and what we do…we just haven’t been able to get it done lately. It’s time to regroup and figure out what we need to work on, what guys need to improve on and get back to it.”
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