Apparently going through customs strips the Yankees of their defensive capabilities.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone curiously called his team a “very good defensive club” after committing four errors in an 8-4 loss to the Blue Jays on Wednesday that made his team look anything but, and attributed his squad’s recent Benny Hill tribute while playing north of the border to being specific to the Rogers Centre.
The Bronx Bombers committed 11 errors in seven games in Toronto this year, including seven in this three-game set.
“I think it’s here and it’s in this building we haven’t played well,” Boone said after falling four games behind Toronto in the AL East race.
“Defense was good down in Atlanta. Again, we’ve had a couple players go through it a little bit, but overall we should be moving forward a good defensive club, we need to be, but it’s this series and the last series here where just too many outs given.”
Boone’s stance on this team’s defense has been a lightning rod lately due to his passionate defense of Anthony Volpe, where his view clashes with fans’ and statistics.
Despite a clear drop in defensive prowess, both in basic statistics like errors and advanced stats like defensive runs saved, Boone continues to maintain that Volpe is an elite defender.
That discourse served as the precursor to Wednesday, when Boone touted his defense after the four blunders played a large role in why the Yankees lost the series.
Volpe and Oswald Peraza committed a pair of run-costing errors in Monday’s 4-1 loss, another Volpe error Tuesday led to the Blue Jays tying the game before the Yankees won on a Ben Rice homer and Wednesday featured four different players making mistakes.
And that’s not even including Cody Bellinger losing a ball in the lights, which was ruled a hit since he never got his glove on the ball but ultimately led to Toronto’s go-ahead run.
The 11 errors in Toronto led to the Blue Jays scoring eight unearned runs across the seven games while going 6-1 against the Yankees.
“Yeah, just not good enough,” Boone said. “Look, I think we have a very good defensive club, but clearly in the seven games we’ve played up here not giving them extra outs, whether it’s through error or not making a play that we need to make, that’s cost us in this two series up here where we were hurt. We’ve got to obviously take it up, confident we will, continue to work at it. We have good defenders here, but (Wednesday) was obviously a rough night for us.”
There are some advanced stats that back up Boone’s points.
The Yankees rank sixth in FanGraph’s Defensive Runs Saved statistic and have committed the ninth-fewest errors in the sport.
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Try it freeHowever, FanGraphs also has the Yankees ranked 20th in outs above average with a minus-six rating.
The Yankees also are battling the public perception that they struggle to make plays when it counts, especially in the aftermath of the disastrous 2024 World Series.
Several blunders, notably in Game 5, had Dodgers players chirping about how the scouting report is to essentially just put the ball in play and let the Yankees beat themselves.
The Yankees have also taken hits this year for their defensive alignments, notably playing Jazz Chisholm out of position at third base to make room for DJ LeMahieu. Chisholm struggled defensively at third base, while LeMahieu did not man second base well.
Boone didn’t say much when asked about the negative perception of his team’s Wednesday night, aside from saying he believes he has a “potentially very good defensive team.”
He focused much more on the venue-specific woes.
“It’s just two bad series where we’ve played here,” Boone said.
“I don’t know if it’s just coming to the turf, that’s not really an excuse, it’s same game. But obviously in these two series we’ve given them too many outs and it’s cost us.”
Boone said his team will continue to work at its defense, accumulating the reps, but he wants to make sure his players don’t get “tight.”
“We have good defenders, it’s not like we’re searching — you look around out field, we’ve got really good defenders, but it’s also something that defense is a game of under control and calm. The last thing I want us to do is get tight and stuff like that, play to not make a mistake, can’t do that,” he said. “But we just gotta keep working at it, keep working at our fundamentals day in and day out and it will continue to get better. … A lot of this season the defense has been very good. It’s these two series where it’s not be good and it’s hurt us and we’ve lost games to them in big part because we’ve given them outs.”