When things aren’t going right for a ballclub, theplays on defense that should be made but aren’t get magnified because they seem to be so often swiftly punished. That was again the case for the Yankees' infield on Tuesday as they let a few miscues snowball into a 12-5 loss at the Toronto Blue Jays, their 12th defeat in the last 18 games.
In the loss, two big moments cost them runs. One on another catcher’s interference by JC Escarra and a play on a ball to third that Jazz Chisholm Jr. couldn’t complete for an out.
“We obviously got to play a little bit better,” manager Aaron Boone said of his defense. “We have the people capable of doing that, and we’ll continue to work hard at it. We’ve got to play better overall, we understand that, we know that.”
With Chisholm still playing at a below-average clip at third and DJ LeMahieu appearing very limited at second, the skipper was asked about swapping the infielders: “We’ll talk through that stuff,” he said.
Is it the best alignment the way it is now? “I think both guys are really talented defenders wherever they line up,” Boone said. “But, we’ll continue to look at things like that.”
Speaking to The Athletic's Chris Kirschner after the game in Toronto, Chisholm said that he had "only worked at second base" during offseason drills and that the Yankees explicitly told him he would be their second baseman. That was the position where he began the year, before he was moved to third base, a position he only played last year after arriving in The Bronx in a deadline deal with Miami, when LeMahieu came off the IL in mid-May.
“Everybody knows I’m a second baseman,” Chisholm told Kirschner. “Of course, I want to play second base, but whatever it takes to help the team win. If that’s what the team chooses, that’s what I gotta do. I don’t write the lineups. You feel me?
“I’m playing every day, so it’s hard to be upset. Yes, I know I’m a second baseman. Yes, I know I’m better at second base, but at the end of the day, I still have to play third. I just have to deal with it.”
LeMahieu has minus-1 outs above average through 288 innings at second base. Chisholm has a minus-2 OAA in 198 innings at third base, while he is a plus-3 OAA in 251 innings at second.
For his part, Chisholm said he would be a “team guy” when he was asked to move back to third when he came off the IL at the beginning of June.
"[Boone] told me he wanted me at third base. He really wanted me at third base. I'm a team guy. I'm here to win a ring. I'm not here to fight over positions," Chisholm said in late May. "We've got some of the best players in the world on our team… I'm just here to help us win."
On the play in question Tuesday, with two down in the fourth and the Yanks up 2-1, Davis Schneider hit a slow chopper to third that Chisholm didn’t play too aggressively. After letting it take an extra hop, he fielded and threw off target to first. The official scorer credited the Blue Jays outfielder, who is in the 50th percentile in sprint speed, with an infield hit. After Max Fried issued a walk, he served up a three-run homer to Andres Gimenez to put Toronto ahead.
“I think he went at it, and I think it’s a little bit of just not always playing on turf,” Boone said. “It’s kind of an in-between. So it kind of messed with his rhythm of the throw, so the throw was inaccurate. It’s probably because the hop kind of took him up a little bit, so it wasn’t as smooth.
“But I chalk that up to more just not getting the right hop and probably a little bit of the turf thing.”
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