Yanks make 4 errors, fall to Marlins in extras
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NEW YORK -- Six years to the day of Derek Jeter’s final at-bat in pinstripes, an evening that produced an iconic image of the Hall of Famer raising his fists in celebration, Aaron Judge’s clutch hit couldn’t prevent The Captain’s new squad from celebrating on his old home turf.
Judge stroked a game-tying eighth-inning single, but the Yankees failed to muster another clutch hit. Their fourth error of the evening proved costly in a 4-3, 10-inning loss to the Marlins on Friday at Yankee Stadium, securing Miami’s first trip to the postseason since its triumph across the street in the 2003 World Series.
“Physical mistakes you can live with, but mental mistakes are tough,” Judge said. “We’ve got our spot in the postseason, but we're trying to really fight for that five spot. I’d rather get them out of the way now and refocus before the postseason.”
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The loss was their fifth in six games, confirming that the Yanks (32-26) will not host a postseason series at Yankee Stadium. New York will either finish with the American League’s No. 5 seed or the No. 8 seed, currently occupied by the Blue Jays (31-27).
“There's plenty of time,” manager Aaron Boone said. “We control everything. If we go play really good baseball, we can be champions. We've got to play better, clearly, but that's in our hands right now. We don't need anyone's help. We just have to go out and do what I know we're capable of doing.”
Limited to Aaron Hicks’ two-run double over seven innings by Sandy Alcantara, the Yankees stirred in the eighth, overcoming a rare umpire interference call that erased what appeared to be a Mike Tauchman stolen base.
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Clint Frazier and DJ LeMahieu struck out, Frazier snapping his bat over a knee in frustration, but Yimi García threw away a pickoff attempt and Judge stroked a soft flare into right field that chased Tauchman home with the tying run.
Aroldis Chapman fired a perfect ninth inning but Miami answered in the 10th, taking advantage of the Yankees’ Major League-leading 47th error during a botched rundown.
Gleyber Torres fielded a one-out Starling Marte grounder and threw to catcher Kyle Higashioka. Monte Harrison was chased to third base by Higashioka, who hit Harrison in the back with the throw. Jesús Aguilar lifted a sacrifice fly that brought home the go-ahead run.
“We’ve got to continue working at being fundamentally sound,” Boone said. “That’s where we’ve let down a little bit.”
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Despite Higashioka popping up a bunt in the 10th, New York loaded the bases against Brandon Kintzler, who induced LeMahieu to ground into the Yanks’ fifth double play of the game.
“DJ has been carrying us all year, coming through in that situation countless times,” Judge said. “If we had done a little better job on certain things, we don’t get to that position.”
Out early
Boone watched nearly all of the game from the Yankees’ clubhouse. Alcantara struck out nine over 7 1/3 innings, including a low first-inning slider that was rung up as a called third strike on Judge.
Home-plate umpire John Tumpane tossed Boone, marking the manager’s second ejection of the season.
“We see Aaron get called out a lot on some bad ones down,” Boone said. “That was clearly pretty bad. I was not sending any message other than I got a little upset.”
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Looking ahead
Preparing to start in a potential Game 3 of the Wild Card Series against an unknown opponent, J.A. Happ completed his regular-season workload with five solid frames. Happ settled in after Garrett Cooper’s three-run homer in the first inning, allowing three hits with two walks and three strikeouts.
“After that first [inning], we tried to make some adjustments,” Happ said. “We limited hard hits, and after that, I think it went pretty well. We started changing the shape of some pitches and mixing a little bit.”
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The 37-year-old lefty ended the season with a 3.47 ERA across nine starts (49 1/3 innings), including a 2.34 ERA over his final seven outings. Happ said that he believes the Yankees will be able to hit their stride when the games matter most.
“It hasn’t been clean or pretty at times, but on any given night, things can change,” Happ said. “We know who we have in that locker room. We know we can play better baseball.”