NEW YORK — The New York Yankees could have sprayed champagne on each other for the second time in a week; instead, it was the Baltimore Orioles who sprayed champagne in their clubhouse Tuesday night.
With an opportunity to clinch the American League East title, the Yankees lost, 5-3, to the Orioles. With the win, Baltimore secured one of three Wild Card spots. The Yankees’ magic number to win the division remains at one, meaning they’d have to finish the season 0-5 and the Orioles 5-0 to not win the AL East.
But the Yankees had a chance on Tuesday to render the remaining five games meaningless. They entered the seventh inning down 4-1, but Gleyber Torres hit an RBI ground-rule double, cutting the Orioles’ lead to 4-2.
Juan Soto then rocketed an RBI single to right field, and Orioles right fielder Anthony Santander fired the ball home, missing the cutoff man. Soto took off for second base, prompting Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman to throw to second. This pushed Torres to dash for home. Baltimore shortstop Gunnar Henderson stepped in front of second base, threw home, and caught Torres in a rundown between third and home plate. Torres was tagged out on a 9-2-6-2-5-2-6 putout.
“I think he thought Soto was going to be out, but you got to commit to either — you’re going to sell out once Rutschman squares,” manager Aaron Boone said. “He got caught in between.”
Juan Soto comes through to make it a 1-run game. pic.twitter.com/ZuWRqSd4WN
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) September 25, 2024
Video replay showed Torres heading back to third base with Rutschman in his windup. It wasn’t until the catcher released the ball that Torres took off to try and score the game-tying run. Torres, who entered Tuesday night’s game ranked in the 31st percentile in sprint speed, didn’t have much of a chance to score because of the combination of his hesitancy and speed.
The out also meant Aaron Judge was left in the on-deck circle with runners on second and third. The Orioles would likely have intentionally walked Judge to load the bases for Austin Wells, who’s mired in an 8-for-61 slump, but it was a missed chance for the Yankees to extend their rally.
“It might have been just a little miscommunication, but he was hustling the whole way,” Judge said. “I think he wanted to score and got the stop sign and was just kind of in no man’s land right there. When it comes down to it, stuff like that can’t happen. 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.”
“I feel like I have to be a little bit more aggressive if I’m going to make that decision to (steal) that run,” Torres said.
Torres’ baserunning blunder marked six outs at home plate for the Yankees’ second baseman this season, tying him with Tampa Bay Rays first baseman Yandy Díaz for the most in MLB.
“A handful of those are two outs on bang-bang plays on an aggressive send,” Boone said while defending Torres’ mistakes. “It’s important to have context with that. He does make some mistakes on the bases. He’s cleaned it up a lot from last year and the year before where he’s getting himself in trouble a lot. I think, in his case, he’s toned down some of the aggressiveness. (This) is a case of protecting a runner, too. Again, it’s got to be bluff or sell out and go.”
“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.”
– Gleyber Torres on his baserunning error in the 7th inning pic.twitter.com/bCxhte6y2V
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) September 25, 2024
Torres was benched earlier in the season after he was thrown out at home plate after failing to hustle out a potential double on a ball he hit to the left-field wall. He has graded out as a negative baserunner in FanGraphs’ baserunning runs above average in every season other than 2021 since becoming a big leaguer. Last season, Torres finished tied for fifth in most outs on the bases. This year, he’s tied for 18th.
Torres’ baserunning mistake overshadowed his 3-for-4 night at the plate and his continued excellence as the team’s leadoff hitter. His .388 batting average as the first batter of the game this season is the highest among all players with at least 50 plate appearances, as Baseball Reference’s Katie Sharp first noted.
In the postseason, baserunning mistakes could impact games on a micro level. The Yankees are by far the worst baserunning team this year, according to FanGraphs, but they’re also fourth in slugging and second in on-base percentage, two much more meaningful stats that impact wins in October on a macro level. There’s no doubt, though, that the Yankees are sloppy on the basepaths, even with adding Jazz Chisholm Jr. at the trade deadline, calling up Jasson Domínguez and having Jon Berti healthy. They’re also tied for last in team sprint speed.
“It was something that was certainly an issue for us last year,” Boone said. “We’ve cleaned up a lot of those things. I think in the second half of the season, we’ve been able to create some runs with steals, double steals and some of our athleticism has improved over the second half. There’s been times this year where we’ve had a lot of guys who’ve been station-to-station and we haven’t been as aggressive. We’ve cut down on some of those outs.”
Torres’ blunder wasn’t the only contributing factor for why the Yankees didn’t clinch the AL East Tuesday. Alex Verdugo, who started in left field over Domínguez, hit into a critical double play with no outs and runners on first and second in the fifth inning. Boone left relief pitcher Tim Mayza in the game too long, and he then proceeded to give up a solo home run to Ramón Urías.
Now, the Yankees will try once again to wrap up the division title on Wednesday night against the Orioles.
“We wanted to come and get it done tonight,” Boone said. “They held us down and we just couldn’t play catch up quite enough.”
(Photo of Torres getting tagged out: Jim McIsaac / Getty Images)
