ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — As Aaron Boone awaited the start of the ALDS in the visiting manager’s office at Tropicana Field on Saturday, he answered what turned out to be a prescient question.
Does it bother Boone, he was asked, that opposing teams’ scouting reports say its key to put the ball in play when the Yankees are in the field. The insinuation made by such scouting reports — not the question itself — is that the Yankees don’t have a sound defense. While not always fair, that’s been their rep for years under Boone, and it even became public that the Dodgers made the same evaluations after the Yankees lost the 2024 World Series to L.A. in sloppy fashion.
Boone, whose club ranked 24th in errors, 17th in Outs Above Average and 13th in Defensive Runs Saved this season, took exception to that suggestion.
“That’s just at times we’ve been very good and people don’t acknowledge it,” Boone insisted. “At times we have been bad, so I don’t get caught up in it. We’re trying to prepare as best we can to maximize our guys and our team. So if you’re implying with that question we’re a bad defense, no, we’re not.”
While the manager can debate just how strong his defense was on the whole this season, there is no arguing that it was catastrophic…. embarrassing…. pathetic — take your pick — in Game 2 of the ALDS on Monday. With three errors in the first frame, four totaled on the night, and several other balls misplayed, the futile Bombers suffered a humiliating 5-2 loss to the much tidier Rays.
Now both teams are headed to Yankee Stadium with the pinstripers on the brink of elimination after they also lost Game 1, 1-0. They have no one but themselves to blame.
“Obviously, tonight was just not good enough for us and certainly not good enough to beat that club. We’ve got to get over it,” Boone said, adding that his Yankees will “playing for our lives” in Game 3 on Wednesday night.
The Yankees’ comedy of errors in this series began on Saturday when, in a desperate attempt to jumpstart a dormant offense, Austin Wells was thrown out inexplicably trying to stretch a double into a triple. On Monday, however, it was the defense that those scouting reports warned of that did the Yankees in, as Ryan McMahon committed a fielding error on the second pitch of the game.
Earlier in the day, Boone said that he had given some thought to Anthony Volpe starting in place of the light-hitting third baseman, but he didn’t want the former shortstop’s first turfed Trop appearance at the hot corner to come in the playoffs.
“I want to prioritize the defense,” Boone said, but his defense didn’t prioritize taking care of the ball.
McMahon wasn’t the only Yankee to falter in the first, as Jazz Chisholm Jr. helped a run score when he made an off-line throw from second base to first base on a double play attempt. With his back turned to first and Jonathan Aranda sliding at him, Chisholm’s heave was off-balance and ill-advised. And yet, he didn’t think he should have held onto the ball.
“Honestly, I’d probably still throw it in the play that was trying to be made,” Chisholm said. “I just feel like I could have probably tried to make an even better throw. Where I’d throw it, I’d try and throw it a little more close to the base. My back was turned.
“I’m just trying to make a play, trying to get my pitcher out of the play. My shortstop made a great play. I tried to make a great play too.”
Wells was then called for catcher interference upon review, and Chisholm nearly threw another ball away before the inning ended.
Somehow, the Rays only scored once in the first inning. And with Cam Schlittler grinding and Ben Rice ripping a solo homer in the fourth, the Yankees were in position to leave St. Pete with a sorely-needed split.
“It wasn’t the way we wanted to start, but the fact that Cam was able to make pitches and get us out of it with only letting up one run was pretty good given how it all unraveled there,” said Rice, who homered twice. “We were feeling good at that point in the game that we were going to have a chance to get back in it.”
But disaster struck their defense again in the fifth inning, which began with an Aranda single to right. The ball bounced in front of Spencer Jones after he got a jump that was -13.4 feet below average, per Statcast. Boone claimed the 109.4-mph “bullet” wasn’t catchable, and that the play wasn’t one to “pick on” with so many other mishaps to choose from.
Jones disagreed. He said he should have caught it, but he admitted to hesitating on a “tough read.”
Junior Caminero then smoked a double before Chisholm, faced with what would have been a tough play at the plate, settled for an out at first on a soft infield tapper. That gave Tampa the lead before George Lombard Jr. was presented with a similar play. Unlike Chisholm, he didn’t field the ball, nor did he record an out as the Rays scampered home again.
The fifth eventually came to a merciful end, but not before a stretching Luis García Jr. dropped a wide throw from Lombard at first. The rookie shortstop was charged with an error on that one.
“It was just one of those games where things kind of compiled and stacked up on top of each other,” Lombard said. “It wasn’t ideal, and we put ourselves in a bad spot.”
Yes, yes they did.
Now the Yankees — devoid of fundamentals, riddled with mistakes, and short on offense — find themselves in an unenviable 2-0 hole as they head back to Yankee Stadium, where the Rays have already celebrated a division crown in the past month. The Yanks need to win three straight to keep their season alive, but only 10 teams in MLB history have overcome such a deficit in a best-of-five series and advanced.
If they hope to be the 11th, they’ll have to play a much cleaner brand of baseball in the Bronx, the scouting reports be damned.
“It’s going to be a rough ride back, but you’ve got to find out what you’re made of. It’s gut-check time,” Boone said. “We can’t dwell on what just happened to us.”