Boone’s managerial start smoother than dad’s
Aaron Boone’s managerial debut was considerably smoother than the first game run by his father Bob, who pulled Kevin Appier with a no-hitter after 62/3 innings and 98 pitches in the Kansas City Royals’ 1995 opener.
Appier had just struck out Baltimore’s Cal Ripken Jr. when Boone signalled for reliever Rusty Meacham.
“When I walked out and I heard all the boos from the fans, I wanted to go: Wait a minute. He’s got too many pitches and this is the first game out of spring training,” Bob Boone recalled Monday. “But they didn’t understand. So when I look back on it, I go, that was dumb. That kind of set the tone as to how dumb I was for the rest of my managerial career.” Aaron Boone won his first two games as the New York Yankees manager, then watched relievers Dellin Betances and David Robertson implode the following two days at Toronto as the Blue Jays rallied for a four-game split. The Yankees returned to New York for their home opener against the Tampa Bay Rays, which was snowed out and rescheduled for today.
“The first two, it was like, this game’s pretty easy. Just snap your fingers and everything falls into place,” said Bob, now the Washington Nationals vice-president of player development. “And then all of a sudden Betances got in and couldn’t throw a strike and couldn’t hold the runner, and things kind of went to hell.”
Aaron Boone sent Betances back to the mound for a second inning of relief Saturday. Yangervis Solarte led off the eighth with a tiebreaking homer and Kevin Pillar singled, then stole second, third and home in a 5-3 win.
New York led 4-1 Sunday before Justin Smoak hit a two-run homer in the seventh against Tommy Kahnle. With runners at second and third with two outs in the eighth, Aaron Boone elected to intentionally walk 2015 AL MVP Josh Donaldson. Smoak hit a grand slam on the ninth pitch of his atbat against David Robertson.
“I won’t be a guy — not because of yesterday — that intentionally walks people a lot,” Aaron Boone said. “I’m not a big believer in throwing extra guys on base, but there are important times in the game where I think you have a decision to make. There’s a lot of debate on that decision yesterday. I understand. But I felt like we made the best decision. And sometimes it works out, and sometimes it doesn’t, and that’s sports, and that’s baseball.”