Gleyber’s baserunning gaffe a rally bad idea
Gleyber Torres doubled off the wall in right-center field to score Didi Gregorius from first base in the bottom of the seventh inning to draw the Yankees within a run in the opener on Saturday. But after Gregorius scored easily, Torres took off for third — and was just as easily thrown out by catcher Salvador Perez.
To make matters worse, it was the first out of the inning and the Yankees didn’t score again in a 10-5 loss to the Royals in The Bronx.
“He put himself in a good position because he could see the play,’’ Aaron Boone said. “When he saw the overthrow [to home], he took off — which was a mistake, obviously. In that situation there, with no outs and us kind of coming back in that spot, that definitely hurt and was a mistake.’’
Third base coach Phil Nevin was left with his hands on his head as Torres was tagged out.
“I like the fact he was in position to make a read,” Boone said. “But it wasn’t the right read.’’
Boone’s reaction Saturday was considerably different than how he dealt with Gary Sanchez’s apparent lack of hustle in Monday’s loss to the Rays in Tampa Bay — when the manager said he’d have to look at the video and talked about Sanchez finding his “gait.”
This time, Boone made his displeasure known — mild as it was.
Torres returned from a hip injury Wednesday and pointed to the difference in the speed of the game from the minors to the majors.
“Play is a little quicker and faster,’’ Torres said. “In the moment, I’ve got the opportunity to go to third base and put me a little closer to [scoring]. It was a bad decision.’’
CC Sabathia’s fifth-inning tumble attempting to field a ground ball in the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader against the Royals looked worse than it was.
“My brace got caught in the turf,’’ Sabathia said of the fall. “It was good for the highlight reel.
In 4 2/3 innings Sabathia gave up two runs and six hits in his 274th start as a Yankee. That tied Bob Shawkey for eighth place on the all-time Yankees list for career starts.
Yankee Stadium was loaded with scouts from other teams as the Indians, Phillies, Dodgers, Marlins, Cardinals and Giants were represented.
Having acquired Zach Britton and J.A. Happ earlier in the week, the Yankees appeared to be done dealing before Tuesday’s 4 p.m. non-waiver trade deadline.
However, those deals were made before Aaron Judge suffered a chipped bone in his right wrist Thursday. The injury has the industry believing the Yankees are in the market for a right-handed hitting outfielder since they started Tyler Wade in left field and Shane Robinson in right field in the first game Saturday. Later, Neil Walker moved from third to right field.
“They will have to establish the value,’’ a scout on hand Saturday said of the Yankees, who expect to get Judge back from the disabled list in three weeks.
Former major league pitcher Tony Cloninger, who pitched for the Braves, Reds and Cardinals, has died. He was 77.
Cloninger died Tuesday. He was the Yankees’ bullpen coach from 1992-2001 and had worked as a consultant for the Red Sox since 2002 and the team announced his death Saturday.