Yankees' defensive miscues costs them, wipes away golden opportunity to even ALDS
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – For a moment, before all the accountability cliches started flowing for the cameras in the Yankees clubhouse, Cam Schlittler was blunt.
“I’ll be the first one to say that I didn’t do my job,” the 25-year-old ace said. “But it didn’t seem like we really showed up today.”
Given the chance to double down later, Schlittler wouldn’t do it. “The guys work their butts off,” he explained. “That’s baseball,” he reiterated. He wasn’t good enough, either, of course.
But in reality, the Yankees played such historically porous defense Monday that they rendered their most dominant playoff ace in a generation completely irrelevant with several defensive misplays including four errors. At one point, they set the record for most errors in a single Yankee playoff game with five – only to have the fifth error overturned by the official scorer.
“Obviously, a really rough night to say the least for us,” manager Aaron Boone said. “We’ve got to get over it. We’ve responded all year to difficult times, and we’ve got to do that again. We’ve got to get ourselves up off the mat.”
Boone said he would address the players when they were settled on the plane back to New York early Tuesday morning. At times in describing what happened, he seemed lost for words, though he always found his way back to “we got to get over it, though. As simple as that.”
What will be difficult to get over is that the Yankees’ inability cost them the game they seemed most certain to win, one in which Schlittler started and his fellow playoff savant, Ben Rice, homered twice.
Playoff games include plenty of error-filled innings and misplays that end up ending seasons. But what the Yankees did Monday was not an example of natural ebb and flow.
Game 2 was a meltdown, the kind that can only be explained by something other than pure physical error – something like when Aaron Judge dropped a fly ball in Game 5 of the 2024 World Series, for example. Twice can be coincidence, but it sure feels like a trend.
“The guys and I, we work hard. We go out there every day. We take our ground balls and we take them very seriously,” Jazz Chisholm Jr. said. “… Especially certain guys that are defensive specialists, some of the best defenders I’ve ever played with are playing. So for me, it hurts us a little more than you’d think.”
Monday’s lineup was not the Yankees’ best defensive alignment, but it hardly lined up as their worst, either. In fact, even after nearly being no-hit two nights ago, Boone decided to start Ryan McMahon in a platoon matchup against Freddy Peralta rather than start versatile Jose Caballero at third base or test novice Anthony Volpe there on unfamiliar turf. McMahon is an elite defender, which is why he starts there more often than not.
But when Yandy Diaz led off the game with a chopper his way, McMahon simply missed the easy hop, then looked as surprised as everyone else to discover he somehow had not caught it. More topspin than he thought, he said later. Suddenly, Schlittler was in the stretch. Inevitably, he was not in peak rhythm. He was not the only one.
After a Jonathan Aranda single, Junior Caminero hit a ground ball that George Lombard Jr. chased down up the middle. He flipped the ball to Chisholm., who caught it falling over second base and decided to throw to first base in the process. It bounced away. Two batters later, Chisholm fielded a routine ground ball that could have been a double play ball. He threw it high to Lombard cringing when he let go as if he wished he could pull it right back. The throw cost them a double play.
In between those two Chisholm plays, Austin Wells was called for catcher’s interference on a pitch that would have been strike three. That the Rays scored just one run during what ended as a three-error first inning was a relative miracle, one due in part to Schlittler’s composure.
Schlittler has been historically unflappable in big games during his first two postseasons. He is as calm as they come, and more confident than most. Asked before the game if he had ever seen Schlittler doubt himself, for example, center field Trent Grisham did not hesitate.
“No,” he said simply. “I have not.”
But the Schlittler who found himself in the middle of a teamwide defensive meltdown looked as uncomfortable as he ever has in a game this important.
His velocity was not quite where it was in his Wild Card start. He searched for his fastball command, missing so badly up and inside to Diaz at one point in the second that he walked up to Diaz to talk about it afterward. Everyone seemed to decide it had been completely accidental. After all, Schlittler had been missing wide with his fastball, as well.
Even so, he survived the second inning, then the third, then the fourth. A Rice homer meant the game was tied when he took the mound to start the fifth inning. Then the Yankees knocked their ace out of the game.
First, Spencer Jones got a late jump on a line drive to right. Caminero doubled. A soft ground ball to Chisholm (no one’s fault) scored a run. A chopper to Lombard – originally ruled an error, eventually ruled a fielder’s chioce – scored another. Both plays would have required some heroics. Too often, the Yankees could not do the basics.
“[Cam’s] not wrong. Obviously, wasn’t ideal from the start. We didn’t make some plays we usually make, kind of happened throughout the game,” Lombard said. “Just made it harder for ourselves.”
Lombard threw a ball wide of first later that inning, so two runs scored on Richie Palacios’ single up the middle. When it was all said and done, the Yankees had broken an ignominious team record and spurred Boone to try Brent Headrick to stop their bleeding. Schlittler finished after allowing four runs (two earned) on six hits in 4 1/3 innings. The Rays applied their trademark pressure. The Yankees could not withstand it.
I think [Cam’s] just throwing a lot more pitches than he should have been throwing. I think it’s maybe a different story there if we take care of the ball and he’s at 30 pitches or 25, 30 pitches instead after the first two and gets in a rhythm and he’s in a groove,” Boone said. “Kind of found himself in trouble a lot tonight, not by his own doing.”
Schlittler would be available to pitch Game 5 on Saturday if the Yankees can force it, but they will need to win two games to do that. Unfortunately, Monday’s game – like any game started by Schlittler, even when he is not at his best – was supposed to be one of the games the Yankees could pencil in as a win. Though Schlittler did not say so, it was his defense that beat him Monday.
“I’m not disappointed in our defense. I’m not disappointed in our offense,” Schlittler said. “Really just disappointed in myself. That’s baseball and those things are going to happen. I’ve got to be able to work through those. I wasn’t able to do that today.”
