NEW YORK — Gleyber Torres rose slowly from the chalky grime, having landed just a few toes shy of returning to the security of third base. The momentum created by just a few well timed swings had vanished, leaving the Yankees’ infielder to ponder how rapidly a state of affairs may shift.
Representing the tying run, Torres was tagged out in a key rundown play throughout the seventh inning on Tuesday night, short-circuiting a budding rally. A Colton Cowser homer quickly tilted the rating again in the Orioles’ favor, sending the Yankees to a 5-3 loss at Yankee Stadium.
“When it comes down to it, stuff like that can’t happen,” stated Yankees captain Aaron Judge. “We can’t keep shooting ourselves in the foot with mistakes like that on the basepaths. But it happened, and we’ve got to move on and get ready for tomorrow.”
The Yankees had been restricted to Judge’s Major League-leading 56th house run by means of six innings, with Dean Kremer working 5 of these frames.
Anthony Rizzo touched Cionel Pérez for a one-out ground-rule double, and Alex Verdugo legged out a two-out infield single that prompted Baltimore to name upon Yennier Cano.
Torres greeted the right-hander together with his third hit of the recreation, a ground-rule double that hopped the right-field fence and introduced house Rizzo to chop the deficit to 4-2.
Four pitches later, Soto ripped a tough single to proper subject that introduced in Verdugo. That was the place the hassle started.
Anthony Santander got here up firing from proper subject, delivering a one-hop throw to house plate. Third-base coach Luis Rojas had held Torres, however Soto was digging for second base as Santander’s throw traveled in.
That prompted Torres to interrupt for house.
“It was a big play,” Torres stated. “I just tried to protect Soto, but I feel like I have to be a little more aggressive. If I’m going to make that decision, go straight for the run. I think that’s going to be my mistake.”
Catcher Adley Rutschman fired to second base, the place shortstop Gunnar Henderson snapped a throw again to the plate. Torres halted midway down the baseline, quickly to be tagged out in a 9-2-6-2-5-2-6 pickle.
“I think he thought Soto was going to be out,” supervisor Aaron Boone stated. “But you’ve got to commit. Once Rutschman squares [to throw], either you’re going to sell out to go or bluff him and pull off. He got caught in between.”
It was the sixth out that Torres has made at house plate this season, which ties the Rays’ Yandy Díaz for the most in the Majors.
“A handful of those are two-out, bang-bang plays on aggressive sends,” Boone stated. “It’s essential to have context with that. He does make some errors on the bases. He’s cleaned it up loads from final 12 months and the 12 months earlier than, the place he was getting himself in hassle loads.
“He’s toned down some of the aggressiveness. But I also think tonight is a case of protecting a runner, too.”
The play ended the inning with Judge due up, although Baltimore seemingly would have deliberately walked Judge with first base open had all the runners been protected.
“It might have been just a little miscommunication,” Judge stated. “He was hustling the whole way. I think he wanted to score and he got the stop sign. It’s just kind of no-man’s-land right there.”
