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Defensive woes and a lack of situational hitting continue to haunt the Yankees as they dropped their fifth game out of their last six in a 4-3 extra-innings loss to the Miami Marlins.
The New York Yankees looked to get back on the winning side against the Miami Marlins, having lost four of their last five and sent J.A. Happ to the mound to face Sandy Alcantara. The Marlins had also lost four of their last five and looked to clinch their playoff spot with a win and a Phillies loss.
Miami came out of the gate strong in the first as Garrett Cooper sent a three-run home run over the right-field fence to give the Marlins a quick 3-0 lead. In the bottom half of the inning, Aaron Boone was ejected for arguing a strike three call on Aaron Judge that was well below the strike zone.
After a D.J. LeMahieu walk and a Judge double, Aaron Hicks put the Yankees on the board in the bottom of the third with a two-run double to cut the Yankee deficit to 3-2, his 10th double of the season and good for second on the roster behind Gio Urshela’s 11.
With two outs in the bottom of the eighth, Judge sent a single into right to score pinch-runner Mike Tauchman and tie the game a 3-3.
The Marlins were able to take a 4-3 lead in the top of the 10th after a failed rundown attempt by Higashioka that allowed Monte Harrison to return to third base, who then scored on a sacrifice fly from Jesus Aguilar.
Brandon Kintzler entered the bottom of the 10th looking for his National League-leading 12th save of the season. After walking Gleyber Torres on a full count, Kyle Higashioka popped out on a bunt attempt trying to move the runners over to second and third. The bases became loaded for LeMahieu after a Clint Frazier walk, who then grounded into the Yankees’ fifth double play of the night.
The win clinched a playoff spot for the Marlins after the Phillies lost to the Rays 6-4. Their playoff drought since 2003 was snapped, which is the year they defeated the Yankees in the World Series.
It was not a pretty night defensively for the Yankees, as they succumbed to four errors: Gary Sanchez’s interference call and throwing errors by Torres, Urshela and Higashioka. With these errors, the Yankees are currently tied for the most errors in the league at 46 along with Pittsburgh.
The tale of the double play also continued to haunt the Yankees at they grounded into five double plays, which takes them to 48 double plays grounded into on the season, tied for second-most in all of baseball.
Deivi Garcia looks to take the mound today against Trevor Rogers at 1:05 p.m. in the 59th game of the 60-game season.
