Yankees’ Anthony Volpe explains costly mental error vs. Red Sox as New York’s miserable slide continues

New York Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe made an ill-timed mental mistake during Friday night’s 5-3 loss (box score) against the Boston Red Sox that cost his team a run. The play occurred with one out in the third inning of a scoreless game, with runners at the corners (including Volpe at third) and Ben Rice at the plate. Rice hit a grounder to first baseman Romy Gonzalez, who touched the bag and fired to second; the throw was off-line, however, drawing Ceddanne Rafaela off the base and causing him to scramble to apply a tag to DJ LeMahieu.

That last part is key, because it means that Volpe’s run would have counted had he crossed the plate before Rafaela tagged LeMahieu. Alas, as you might have guessed, Volpe didn’t go all-out toward the plate, leaving him a few steps short when the tag was made. (LeMahieu, it should be noted, could’ve ensured Volpe scored had he retreated and prolonged the sequence with a rundown.) Take a look:

Afterward, Volpe took responsibility for his mistake while explaining that he thought the ball was foul. “I just got to hustle all the way,” he told reporters. “Just got to be better.”

Yankees manager Aaron Boone, for his part, told reporters that he had talked to Volpe about the play. “We got to play better than that, yeah, no question,” he said. “We certainly understand that and invest a lot in that, and we got to play clean baseball, especially when it’s hard and things are hard to come by. Yeah, we got to be better. Period.”

Volpe, 23, has become a lightning rod for criticism in recent weeks. After a quality start to the season that saw him enter June with a .784 OPS, he has since batted .207/.229/.293 in 31 games. The Yankees, meanwhile, are now 5-15 in their last 20 games, causing them to slip from the perch in the American League East to three games back of the Baltimore Orioles.

Volpe is the second Yankees player to be scrutinized for poor hustle in a matter of hours, joining veteran outfielder Trent Grisham, whose lackadaisical approach to a routine ball cost the Yankees a base during Thursday’s loss against the Cincinnati Reds.

To make matters worse, the Yankees’ player development staff was criticized on X by star Aaron Judge’s personal hitting coach Richard Schenk. Schenk tweeted: “They’ve lost 13 out of 18 while he’s hitting like an MVP. The Yankees offensive player development is terrible.”

Boone responded to Schenk’s commentary on Friday, saying: “People are going to say things and certainly everyone’s entitled to their opinion, and especially when you go through a tough stretch and you wear this uniform I know people are going to take shots and things like that, so you can’t get all consumed with all that stuff. We got enough to worry about making sure we’re buttoned up and putting our best foot forward every day.”

The Yankees will continue their weekend series against the Red Sox on Saturday afternoon.