Yankees Fan Rich Weighs In on the Pinstripes’ Errors Binge in ALDS Game 2 Loss to the Rays

Rich has watched baseball since he fell for the 1976 New York Yankees, so he felt qualified to go out on a limb after Game 2 of the ALDS in Tampa. "If you've got your Cy Young candidate stopper on the mound, down by a game in a best-of-five series, the one thing you should do is catch the ball behind him."

That is not what happened. Cam Schlittler took the mound with the Yankees down a game, and the defense behind him committed three errors in the first inning alone. "No, it's not optimum," Rich said. Thanks to Schlittler, the Yankees were only down 1-0 at that point. Then came more errors, including one by rookie shortstop George Lombard Jr., who Rich said has been "terrific" in his first go-round, in an inning that got extended because of it.

The worst of it came from Jazz Chisholm Jr. at second base. Ryan McMahon booted what looked like a routine ground ball to put a runner on first. Then Chisholm tried to complete what Rich called an impossible double play and threw the ball away, letting the first run score. Unearned, because, as Rich noted, the runner never should have been on base.

All of that wiped out Schlittler's effort, and it wiped out two home runs by Ben Rice, who Rich said "has been spectacular without Aaron Judge."

Aaron Boone did not pile on. Asked about the Chisholm play, he said, "If you're under control and you make the throw, though, it's probably going to be bang bang. So I don't necessarily have a problem with the throw. We got to play catch. It's big leagues." Chisholm stood by it too. "Honestly, I probably still throw it," he said, while allowing he could have tried to make a better throw closer to the base because his back was turned.

Rich was not convinced. "It almost hit Baker Mayfield in the back of the head wherever he was," he said.

His bigger concern is that the Yankees have reverted to the form the Dodgers mocked after beating them in the World Series. Put the ball in play against New York, and the Yankees will make the mistake. "Just let them beat themselves," Rich summarized. "You don't have to beat them."

He even checked whether Schlittler was tipping pitches, texting Vinnie Pasquantino, who joins the show later this week. The answer was no. The Rays, Pasquantino told him, lead the league with the flattest swing plane, and they don't strike out. "They took his superpower right out," Rich said. Schlittler finished with just two strikeouts, and the Rays put the ball in play and let the Yankees do the rest.

There was, of course, a headline contest. Rich posted on Threads that if the New York Post did not run "Couldn't field for Schlitt," they should fold as a publication. His buddy Paul, a diehard Yankees fan, pitched "couldn't hit for Schlitt" first. Rich punched it up. The Post went another direction: "The Errors Tour," with Yankees spelled with four Es and a nod to a Swift exit. The table gave it its due. "That's why they're the best in the business, man." Rich still thinks his was the winner.

For Game 3 at Yankee Stadium, Rich wants Boone to put back the lineup that worked against the Red Sox, when the Yankees put the ball in play. "This lefty stuff, I don't care," he said. He invoked Bull Durham: catch the ball, hit the ball, and don't lollygag around the infield. Max Fried's start is a question, with his girlfriend reportedly due to give birth, in which case it could be Carlos Rodón instead. Rich offered a mazel to the Fried family if that is the reason.

And if the Yankees are eliminated, Rich thinks the general manager has to answer a real question. In an era of pitchers throwing 100-plus with offspeed stuff in the mid-90s, do you keep sending out a lineup that is "home run or bust," or do you build like Tampa and Milwaukee? With money like the Dodgers have, he said, you get both. His closing advice was simpler still. "You catch it," Rich said. "And then when you throw it, you throw it to your teammate."