Sports
Gleyber Torres makes another error, and this time it hurt Yankees
Gleyber Torres made an error on a routine play for the second straight night in the Yankees’ 11-3 loss to the Dodgers on Saturday night at the Stadium.
After dropping a pop-up in shallow right field Friday on a play he pursued nonchalantly, Torres booted an easy grounder by Shohei Ohtani in the top of the eighth Saturday.
While Torres was bailed out by a pickoff Friday, he wasn’t as fortunate this time as Ohtani scored on Teoscar Hernandez’s grand slam off Tommy Kahnle.
“You’ve got to be able to let it go,” Aaron Boone said of Torres’ errors. “That’s a hard thing. … When Gleyber’s at his best, he plays free and easy and sometimes it gets him in a little trouble, but it allows him to make a lot of plays.”
On the grounder Saturday, Boone thought Torres may have gone in the other direction, saying he tried to “over-secure it.”
Torres said he was frustrated by the mistakes, but added he wasn’t putting too much pressure on himself.
“I just made an error,” said Torres, who has 10 errors on the year after making 15 last season. “Especially in that situation, you have to make sure you get one out. … I’ll try to figure it out [Sunday].’’
Gerrit Cole is set to make his second rehab start Sunday at Double-A Somerset, with Boone saying the right-hander is expected to be in the 50-60 pitch range.
And the manager added that Cole may not get fully built up in the minors before making his season debut for the Yankees after being sidelined with elbow inflammation during spring training that’s caused him to miss the first two-plus months of the regular season.
“It’s possible he doesn’t come to us at 100 pitches,” Boone said. “What that point is, I don’t know. Gerrit will have a big say in that, as well.”
Boone also noted that Cole may throw fewer pitches once he returns to the Yankees than whatever he ends up throwing in his final rehab appearance, due to the increased level of competition.
Boone said the team “had some conversations” after Friday night’s 11-inning loss to the Dodgers about possibly adding another bullpen arm, but decided against it.
The Yankees are in the middle of a 13-day stretch without an off day.
“This is one of the times in the season it gets a little bit challenging,’’ Boone said. “Fortunately, we’ve gotten pretty good, consistent length from our starters throughout the year and feel like we’re OK.”
After churning through three more relievers Saturday, the Yankees resorted to having Oswaldo Cabrera get the final out of the top of the ninth.
The infielder walked two before getting Miguel Rojas to ground out.
Aaron Judge has gone from having a rough few first weeks of the season to playing like the best player in the world again.
Boone said there hasn’t been a significant change in Judge, even if the results have been vastly different.
“He’s so good at handling the inevitable ups and downs,” Boone said. “There have just been some subtle timing things.”
Judge hit two more homers Saturday. He has 23 on the year.
He entered the game leading the majors in home runs, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, extra-base hits, walks and WAR among position players (4.4) according to Fangraphs.
DJ LeMahieu was 4-for-26 with no extra-base hits in his first eight games since returning from a foot fracture and he entered Saturday hitless with four strikeouts in his previous two games.
But he responded with a pair of singles and a walk in his first multi-hit game of the year.
LeMahieu also made a fine defensive play at third base in the sixth.