The New York Yankees dealt with an embarrassing 2-1 loss against the Los Angeles Dodgers after a costly error from center fielder Trent Grisham in the eighth inning. The baserunning mistake erased the Yankees’ chance to tie the game.
With Trent Grisham on first base after a walk, Ben Rice hit an aggressive double off the center field wall. The 29-year-old was given the green light by third-base coach Luis Rojas on the double, but the call backfired as he got thrown out at the plate.
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The play immediately drew criticism of Trent Grisham for failing to get out of the box and sprint from first base. Fans took to social media, voicing their frustration with Grisham and Rojas’ coordination.
“Wasn’t running hard to begin with which is unacceptable but shouldn’t have been sent. Stupid baseball 😡😡😡”
“Why tf is Rojas still the 3rd base coach? He does nothing but dumb shit like this everytime.”
“HOW ARE YOU NOT SPRINTING AROUND THE BASES? WHERE IS THE URGENCY??? HOW DOES THE THIRD BASE COACH NOT KNOW IF HE WANTS TO STOP OR SEND HIM!??!
“No way they sent Grisham’s slow a**”
“The manager and his staff are incompetent losers. How many bad sends by Rojas have we seen over the years?”
“It’s probably not smart to send a guy home who’s jogging.”
The Dodgers, on the other hand exected a perfect relay with center fielder Andy Pages firing the ball to shortstop Mookie Betts, who then delivered a clean throw to catcher Dalton Rushing. Their teamwork completely shut down the Yankees rally and boosted the Dodgers 2-1 victory.
Aaron Boone defends Trent Grisham and 3B coach Luis Rojas’
New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone defended Trent Grisham and third-base coach Luis Rojas’ aggressive baserunning decision in the eighth inning. During the post-game interview, Boone said that Grisham was making sure Ben Rice’s hit was going into the gap before sprinting while might have affected his running.
He also backed Luis Rojas, noting that the decision to wave the center-fielder home was a good call on the play. He further explained,
“I didn’t see there. I thought kind of getting into the run, like first to second, making sure it was definitely, obviously in the gap. And then I thought Luis actually did a good job in reading the throw,” Aaron Boone said.
It was going over the second baseman’s head, and Mookie was kind of on the run to have to go make the play, and then, you know, made a pretty good throw on the run. So, don’t have an issue with taking the shot there.”
Addressing whether the Yankees should have played it more conservatively with the heart of the lineup coming up, Boone said there are no guarantees in those situations. He said that with one out, teams sometimes have to be willing to “push the envelope,” and praised Rojas for making a decisive split-second decision after initially holding Grisham before reading the throw and taking the chance.
Edited by Shyam Kamal