The duality of Gleyber Torres remained on display Tuesday night, as the Yankees’ second baseman continued to thrive in the leadoff spot before making a costly mistake on the bases in a 5-3 loss to the Orioles.
Torres’ blunder came in the seventh inning after Juan Soto put the Yankees down one with a sharp single to right field. The knock scored Alex Verdugo, and Soto took off for second when Orioles right fielder Anthony Santander threw home. Baltimore backstop Adley Rutschman then fired to second, which is when Torres made a late break for home plate despite not being all that fast and having a minimal jump from third base.
Soto made it to second safely, but Torres was easily caught in an inning-ending rundown after Gunnar Henderson threw the ball back to the plate.
“I just tried to protect Soto,” said Torres, who has also hindered the Yankees with 18 errors this season. “In that situation, just protect him. I was a little in between to go to home plate. I feel like I went a little bit late, and after that they made me out.”
“That’s gonna be my mistake tonight.”
Here's a look at that Gleyber Torres play (as Colton Cowser murders a baseball to deep right).
Torres, who is not fast, didn't have a big jump off third and didn't decide to go until the throw to 2B was being made. #Yankees #Orioles pic.twitter.com/ks5gW48jFc
— Gary Phillips (@GaryHPhillips) September 25, 2024
While Torres took accountability for the rally killer, he also took the bat out of Aaron Judge’s hands in what was a one-run game.
“It might have been just a little miscommunication, but he was hustling the whole way,” said Judge, who hit his 56th homer earlier in the game. “I think he wanted to score, and he got the stop sign and was kind of in no man’s land right there.
“When it comes down to it, stuff like that can’t happen. Can’t keep shooting ourselves in the foot with mistakes like that on the basepaths. But it happened. We gotta move on and get ready for tomorrow.”
Tuesday’s goof was not an isolated incident for Torres, as it counted as his sixth out at home plate this season even though he was tagged heading back to third base. He and Tampa Bay’s Yandy Díaz lead the majors in that category.
Told of that stat, Aaron Boone replied, “You have the context on all the outs at home plate? I mean, a handful of those are two outs, bang-bang plays on an aggressive send. So it’s important to have context with that. He does make some mistakes on the bases. He’s cleaned it up a lot from last year and the year before where he was getting himself in trouble a lot. I think in his case, he’s toned down some of the aggressiveness. But I also think tonight is a case of protecting a runner too. But it’s gotta be bluff or sell out and go.”
According to FanGraphs’ Baserunning Runs Above Average (BsR) metric, Torres’ -3.5 mark is the 15th-worst in baseball.
The Yankees, meanwhile, have made 18 outs at home this season. That was tied with the Twins for the fifth-most such plays, and their -16.4 BsR ranked last in the majors by a decent margin. Prior to Tuesday, the team’s 42 outs on the bases were considered league average.
Asked to assess his team’s baserunning this season, Boone said that “we’ve cleaned up a lot of those things” after acknowledging the Yankees’ struggles on the bases last season. Boone also said that the Yankees have added some speed since the second half began — namely Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Jasson Domínguez — so he feels the team’s running has improved as the season has gone on.
“There’s been times this year where we’ve had a lot of guys that we’ve been station to station and we haven’t been as aggressive,” Boone said. “So we’ve cut down some of those outs.”
With that in mind, Boone feels good about the Yankees’ baserunning abilities and tendencies with the postseason nearing, even if some stats don’t.
“We can always be better, and there’s some guys that are super instinctive and very good at it,” the manager said. “Other guys, it’s a little more of a challenge. But I think over the last several weeks our baserunning’s been a net positive for us with some of the runs that we’ve created, whether it’s through the stolen base or being aggressive.”
While Torres’ out hurt the Yankees on Tuesday, he’s not the only reason his team had to wait another day to clinch the American League East.
The O’s quickly regained a two-run lead when Colton Cowser murdered a baseball off Ian Hamilton in the eighth, and Ramón Urías and Anthony Santander homered earlier in the game. Heston Kjerstad had an RBI groundout, and Ryan O’Hearn added a run with a single off Clarke Schmidt, who allowed three earned runs over 5.1 innings.
Torres actually produced one of the Yankees’ three runs, hitting an RBI ground-rule double in the seventh. The leadoff man, who struggled for much of the season offensively, finished the night 3-for-4 and has reached base in all but one game this month.
“I think you’re seeing the result of what he is,” Boone said of the impending free agent, “and that’s a really good hitter in the prime of his career that just, for whatever reason, got off to a tough start and struggled by his standards for a couple months at the plate.”
