The New York Yankees’ weekend woes continued in their 2-0 loss to the Boston Red Sox on Sunday, as their offensive struggles were compounded by yet another baserunning blunder, this time courtesy of Ben Rice.
In the top of the third inning, with the Yankees desperate for any spark, Rice singled to right field with one out and advanced to second on Cody Bellinger’s two-out infield single. With Jazz Chisholm Jr. at the plate, Rice saw an opportunity to ignite a rally by attempting to steal third. However, his decision backfired spectacularly. Before Red Sox starter Brayan Bello even began his pitching motion, Rice broke for third too early. Bello, reading the play perfectly, whirled and threw to shortstop Trevor Story, who easily tagged Rice out at third to end the inning.
Rice, reflecting on the play, explained his mindset: “I just kind of sensed that he was falling into a rhythm. I thought I had a shot to get two guys in scoring position there. But, unfortunately, he got the timing perfect there.” The Yankees have had success with double steals this season, including one initiated by Rice on Wednesday in Kansas City, but this attempt was poorly timed and costly.
Manager Aaron Boone didn’t entirely dismiss the aggressive approach but was critical of the execution. “He’s pretty adept at picking his spots there with two outs,” Boone said. “We’ve got the trail runner coming, but you’ve got to be more certain than that. That’s a play you can’t get caught like that on a pickoff play there. That one obviously stung us a little bit when we had a little rally going.”
The miscue was particularly damaging as the Yankees’ offense sputtered, managing just one more runner in scoring position for the rest of the game. This wasn’t an isolated incident either. The previous day, Jasson Domínguez made an even more egregious error, losing track of the count during Trent Grisham’s at-bat and getting tagged out between second and third after mistakenly thinking Grisham had struck out. Additionally, while Boone defended Anthony Volpe’s decision to attempt stealing third in the 10th inning of Friday’s loss, the cumulative effect of these baserunning gaffes in a series where the Yankees’ bats were ice-cold proved devastating.
With each mistake, the Yankees squandered precious opportunities in a series where scoring chances were scarce, turning their baserunning into a glaring liability and leaving fans frustrated at the team’s self-inflicted wounds.