Yanks love to give up bases admiring almost-homers

EVEN if the Yankees win 110 games, they’ll enter the playoffs a highly vulnerable team if they continue to play Aaron Boone Baseball.

At least four times in recent games, the Yankees wound up a base short due to the youth league-forbidden failure to run to first base.

In one game, Josh Donaldson and DJ LeMahieu, prematurely surrendering to infield ground balls, jogged to first then headed for the dugout when they should have been on first due to first a bobbled ball, later to a bad throw.

This past week, first Aaron Judge, then Giancarlo Stanton chose similarly. For Stanton it was a recurring tale of doing the least he can do playing for a manager who consistently indulges the least from professionals at the sport’s highest level.

That Stanton, last season in a one-game playoff the Yankees lost in Boston, posed a double into a single high off the wall wasn’t going to bother or change him. Not at $29 million per.

Thursday in Baltimore, he did the same, posing to watch his shot smack off the wall, then only reaching first.

Did it matter that the Yankees lost to the O’s in the ninth? Judging from what we’ve seen from Stanton, not a bit. It’s obvious he cares only about hitting home runs — and that Boone is good with that.

Tuesday, Judge jogged to first while watching his blast slam off the left-field wall then roll back toward the infield. As per modern minimalism, the center fielder didn’t bother to back up. Judge, who drove in a run with the double, was then thrown out at third.

On YES, Carlos Beltran, who nearly managed the Mets, twice praised Judge’s “hustle.” Had he run the whole way he’d have been safe at third!

Of course, such lethargy is explained as batters having “thought” they cleared the fence, when it’s often a case of “hoping,” then a case of too late.

Yep, come the playoffs the Yankees will be vulnerable. Then again, the likelihood that their opponents play the same way is pretty good, too.