It only took the Yankees being on the verge of elimination for the front office and staff, to realize that Isiah Kiner-Falefa is not the answer at shortstop. Yesterday’s loss was ugly, to say the least, but IKF was more or less responsible for two of those runs.
In the postseason, mistakes like that cannot continue to slide and be brushed aside. Fortunately, Boone has made the decision to bench IKF and move Oswaldo Cabrera over to shortstop.
Sadly, that means Aaron Hicks will be getting big ABs with the season on the line, though that could also mean the team doesn’t believe Carpenter is 100% able to play the field.
With IKF continuing to struggle with his glove, it’ll be interesting to see if this is a sign of things to come for the Hawaiian Hustle. His Yankees tenure has been anything but great, and if he didn’t have as much success as he does with RISP, he would’ve lost his spot a while ago.
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The Yankees are doing everything they can to pull out a win in Game 4:
Tonight is it for the boys. If they lose, there is no other chance to right the ship. The Yankees find their backs against the wall in this potential elimination game; however, they did see the most success of the series against Quantrill.
Hopefully, this change can spark the guys and inspire them to keep fighting through the adversity. No IKF means no double clutches every time the ball is hit too short, and additionally, it means that every close play at first won’t give me a heart attack.
I’m sure IKF is a great person, but in the ALDS, he should not be seeing the field for a team this talented. Whilst the postseason has been anything but predictable this go, with the Dodgers and Braves being knocked out already, this Yankees team is objectively better than the Guardians.
They have to put together quality ABs and make sure to properly deploy the bullpen. Last night was a travesty, but that’s what’s nice about baseball is that today is not yesterday. The team has to put that loss behind them and start anew tonight. The Chase for 28 is still on.