NEW YORK — A ground ball skipped off a glove. A runner got picked off standing still. A closer walked in a run with the bases loaded. None of it belonged to the same inning, yet all of it belonged to the same afternoon.
By the time the Twins finished a 6-1 win at Yankee Stadium on Sunday, the Yankees had lost more than a baseball game. They handed Minnesota its first series win in New York since 2014.
The defeat was the fourth in the Yankees’ past five at home and their ninth in the last 10 overall. It dropped a team that sat at 46-28 on June 19 to 3-12 since, a free fall that has knocked the club to 49-40 and four games behind Tampa Bay in the American League East.
What makes this stretch sting is the mistakes by both the manager and players. Boone let Anthony Volpe and Camilo Doval had their share. The Yankees’ lack of seriousness ran deeper.
A defense that keeps giving away runs
The clearest thread in the Yankees’ slide runs through their glovework. The two runs Minnesota added in the sixth inning were unearned, and they traced directly to a Yankees misplay at shortstop. Anthony Volpe could not corral a chopper off the bat of Ryan Kreidler, and the miss opened the door for a two-run rally.
That error pushed the Yankees to 29 unearned runs allowed over their last 15 games, the most by a Yankees team in any 15-game span since 1935. It is a staggering total, and it reflects a defense that has stopped making routine plays at the worst possible time.
The Yankees frustration has carried into the broadcast booth, where the misplays have become the central talking point around the team. As Volpe’s error unfolded, longtime analyst Suzyn Waldman connected the fielding lapses to the boos raining down from the stands.
“You know, this is what everyone is talking about. This is why this team is getting booed right now, and why people say they’re not focused. That was their 20th error in their last 15 games,” Waldman said.
The subtler mistakes hurt too. With runners on first and second and nobody out in the fifth, center fielder Trent Grisham drifted to a fly ball, caught it while backpedaling and never rushed his throw. Both runners tagged and advanced. Nothing in the box score flagged it, but it kept a rally alive that the Yankees needed to snuff out.
Boone’s faith in Doval backfires again
The Yankees bullpen decisions have drawn as much scrutiny as the errors. Camilo Doval opened the sixth and again could not hold the line. Pitching for a second straight day, he surrendered two runs on two hits and a bases-loaded walk, though the runs went down as unearned because of Volpe’s miscue behind him.
The bigger Yankees picture is uglier. Doval has now allowed 10 runs across his past three appearances. Yet he keeps getting high-leverage innings, and Volpe keeps getting starts at shortstop, even as both have repeatedly cost the team. Manager Aaron Boone has stood by both players, and Sunday offered another afternoon where that patience blew up.
The Yankees starter did the group no favors either. Ryan Weathers, who said afterward he was dealing with the effects of food poisoning, failed to record an out in the fifth. He was charged with four runs on six hits and two walks over four-plus innings. He kept his focus on the effort rather than the illness.
“I want to do well for the team and try to win the ballgame. It just didn’t happen today,” Weathers said.
Chisholm sums up a clubhouse on edge
The frustration spilled into the basepaths in the second inning. Jazz Chisholm Jr. won a nine-pitch battle against Twins ace Joe Ryan and lined a single into the right-field corner. On the next pitch he broke for second, then stopped short. The Yankees infielder said he aggravated a big toe injury that required surgery in 2023, and Minnesota catcher Victor Caratini picked him off.
Chisholm left the game after five innings and is due to be reevaluated Monday. The Yankees motormouth expected to be fine and does not anticipate missing time. Asked about the state of a team that has cratered, he did not hide the mood.
“We just hate losing, concern level is high,” Chisholm said. “When it’s not going well, it kind of sucks…but at the same time we just have to remember who we are.”
No answer for other Ryan as the bats stay cold
Twin’s Ryan carved through the lineup for seven scoreless innings, scattering three hits and one walk while striking out nine. He became the first Twins pitcher to throw seven shutout innings in the current Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees did not put a runner in scoring position until the seventh, and Amed Rosario struck out to end that threat. Their lone run arrived in deflating fashion in the ninth, when Jasson Dominguez grounded into a double play with the bases threatening. Over their past 15 games, the Yankees are hitting .110 with runners in scoring position, 10-for-91.
Boone acknowledged the pileup of failures without pinning the collapse on any single flaw.
“We haven’t hit much. We haven’t played well. We haven’t pitched our best. All that adds up,” theYankees skipper said.
The Yankees now travel to face the first-place Rays in a four-game set beginning Monday at Tropicana Field, with Cam Schlittler, Will Warren and Gerrit Cole lined up for the first three games. A division that felt within reach three weeks ago could swing hard by the weekend. The margin for the kind of self-inflicted afternoon they just endured has all but disappeared.
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