The New York Yankees experienced another baserunning issue during their 2-0 loss to the Miami Marlins on Saturday at loanDepot park. Jazz Chisholm Jr. was doubled off first base after an infield pop-up, but both Chisholm and Yankees manager Aaron Boone said the play was more complex than it appeared.
Chisholm explained that he thought Marlins second baseman Xavier Edwards might let the ball drop, allowing him to advance to second base. “We’ve been making mistakes for the last week and a half. We know that’s not us,” Chisholm said. “We know we’re a better baseball team. … I feel like we’re pressing a little bit — even low-key me, too — because I’m trying to go out there and make extra plays that don’t really need to be made.”
The play occurred in the second inning when Paul Goldschmidt hit a pop-up off Eury Pérez. Edwards, moving from the outfield onto the infield, caught the ball and quickly threw to first base to double off Chisholm, ending the inning. Marlins manager Clayton McCullough described it as “a high baseball IQ play.” Edwards commented, “It’s pretty self-explanatory. The really fast guys, you want to get them off the bases. … I think Jazz could tell I was thinking about dropping it, because he’s probably thinking the same way I am. He’s a lot faster than Goldschmidt is.”
Chisholm said he would not have acted differently if given another chance: “Just trying to be aggressive,” he said. “I saw something that I thought they were going to do. [Edwards] deked like he was going to do it. He didn’t do it.”
Afterward, Boone spoke with first-base coach Travis Chapman about whether louder warnings could have helped avoid the out: “The only thing I was saying was, ‘Could we have yelled louder when he gets into the danger zone?’” Boone said.
Boone also noted that benching players for such plays is rare during his tenure and did not believe Chisholm’s effort warranted discipline: “No. It’s a guy trying to make a play,” Boone said. “I get it looks bad, and it’s a bad play, but it’s not a case of a guy that’s dogging it. He’s just trying to make a play. Just because it’s going bad right now and the world’s on fire, I’m not going to just take guys out for giving a crap.”
Despite recent criticism of their baserunning decisions, Boone pointed out that entering Saturday’s game, the Yankees were tied with the Angels for fewest outs on bases this season (23). “When you’re the New York Yankees and you’re losing and you make a mistake, [people say], ‘Look what just happened,’” Boone said. “I can show you around the league — it happens all the time. Doesn’t make it OK. We want to be as clean and perfect as we can be, without question.
“Don’t get it twisted; don’t think, ‘Oh yeah, it’s fine.’ It’s not fine. But [stuff] happens sometimes, too.”
On offense, Agustín Ramírez hit two home runs against rookie Cam Schlittler in the first and fourth innings while Schlittler pitched five innings with four hits allowed.
Giancarlo Stanton delivered one of Pérez’s four allowed hits with a 110.7 mph single in the first inning; however, Trent Grisham was thrown out at home by Kyle Stowers after third-base coach Luis Rojas sent him aggressively—an approach Boone later questioned.
With their record now at 60-51 late in the season, concerns are growing about whether this Yankees team can meet its postseason expectations.
“We have really good players. We think we have a really good team,” Boone said. “We haven’t realized our potential yet. We’ve got to get there. We’ve got a couple of months to do it. And we’d better hurry.”
