An unusual and unfortunate incident encapsulates the present of the New York Yankees, who are going through their second six-game losing streak in three weeks. The event, which occurred in front of 41,401 fans at Citi Field on Saturday, went almost unnoticed. After securing the third out of the fourth inning in their 12-6 defeat to the Mets, the Yankees players were retreating from the field. Shortstop Anthony Volpe, following the custom at the end of each inning, threw the ball to right fielder Aaron Judge, who was crossing the infield.
Judge, however, was not looking and the ball hit him in the head, causing him to lose his sunglasses and causing a small cut near his right eye. Although the wound required a bandage to stop the bleeding, Judge remained in the game.
Avoiding an injury to their star player was one of the few positives for the Yankees in another lackluster and exhausting loss to their city rivals. With this loss, the Yankees, who led the American League East Division at the end of June, are now tied with the Tampa Bay Rays for second place, three games behind the Blue Jays, before the final game of the Subway Series on Sunday. The team’s downfall has been fueled by a poor defense and a depleted pitching staff that has encountered an obstacle.It was a confusion. I didn’t know what happened at first. I just felt that something happened. Of course, I was a little worried.
Aaron Boone, Yankees manager
Before the game, Boone announced that starting pitcher Clarke Schmidt will likely undergo Tommy John surgery, ending his season. For the second day in a row, the Mets took advantage of errors and hit timely home runs. After hitting three home runs in the first game of the series on Friday, the Mets added three more on Saturday: a grand slam in the first inning by Brandon Nimmo to take a 4-0 lead and two home runs by Pete Alonso to extend the lead. Nimmo’s hit, his second grand slam in four days, came after Yankees left fielder Jasson Domínguez misread a ball hit by the Mets’ first batter in the first inning. On Friday, he misread Nimmo’s line drive and watched it go over his head for a double. On Saturday, he reacted slowly to a ball from Starling Marte in left-center field and slowed down without catching it, allowing Marte to advance to second with a double. Yankees starter Carlos Rodón then walked two batters to load the bases for Nimmo, who hit a slider that went over the wall.It’s been a terrible week.
Aaron Boone
That slider probably needs to go down. Many errors today and they punished them.
Carlos Rodón
Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s throwing problems at third base, a position the Yankees have asked him to play to accommodate DJ LeMahieu at second base, continued in the second inning when he fielded a ground ball from Tyrone Taylor and sent a throw over the head of first baseman Cody Bellinger. Taylor was awarded second base and scored moments later on a single by Marte that drove in a run.
The Yankees were charged with their second error in the Mets’ four-run seventh inning when center fielder Trent Grisham went for a single by Francisco Lindor up the middle and the ball bounced off the heel of his glove. The error allowed a run to score from second base without a pitch, extending the Mets’ lead to three runs after the Yankees had cut their deficit, and allowed a smart Lindor to advance to second base. Lindor later scored on Alonso’s second home run, a three-run shot off left-hander Jayvien Sandridge in the pitcher’s major league debut. “We just have to play better,” Judge said. “That’s what it’s about. It’s the fundamentals. Make a routine play, routine. It’s just the little things. That’s what it’s about. But all good teams go through some bumps in the road.”This six-game losing streak has been very different from the Yankees’ first one. That difficult period, which consisted of losses to the Red Sox and the Angels, was driven by offensive problems. The Yankees scored six runs in the six games and only allowed 16. This time, run prevention is the problem; the Yankees have scored 34 runs and conceded 54 in four games against the Blue Jays in Toronto and two in Queens.
“So, look, when you’re living it and going through it, it sucks, it hurts. But you have to be able to handle it. You have to be able to deal with it. You have to be able to weather this and come out of this and grow.”The offense is starting to hit, to put some runs on the scoreboard. The pitching, which has carried us a lot this season, has really, really struggled this week. We haven’t caught the ball as well as I think we should.
Aaron Boone
