The New York Yankees were down 4-2 in the seventh inning of last night’s game against the Baltimore Orioles with runners on second and third when Juan Soto came to bat. Soto hit a hard line drive to right field that scored one to make it 4-3.
Unfortunately, Gleyber Torres was caught between third base and home plate and gave away the third and last out of the inning on the basepaths. Up next was Aaron Judge, but the Yankees second baseman took the bat away from him with runners on second and third because of the baserunning mistake.
Yankees manager weighs in on Torres’ miscues
It wasn’t Torres’ first offense. In fact, baserunning mistakes are becoming a problem with him and have been recurring for a couple of seasons now.
Manager Aaron Boone offered his thoughts about Gleyber’s ongoing baserunning miscues, per SNY:
“He does make some mistakes on the bases. He’s cleaned it up a lot from I think last year and the year before, where he was getting himself in trouble a lot,” Boone said.
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Perhaps if he stayed at third base, Judge would have brought those two runs home and the Yankees would have won (they lost 5-3). It’s impossible to know for sure, but that’s exactly why these mistakes can’t happen in the playoffs.
Gleyber himself explained the situation. “I just tried to protect Soto. In that situation, just protect him. I was a little in between to go to home plate, I feel like I went a little late, and after that they made me out,” he said, per the YES Network.
Torres has no choice but to look forward and try to avoid these mistakes in the future. He has been a key cog in the Yankees lineup for weeks and remains vital for their chances.
