One night after having whipped cream on his face, Marcus Thames had egg on it.
Only 24 hours after hitting a walk-off home run, Thames dropped a fly ball by Marco Scutaro in the ninth inning that led to a Mariano Rivera meltdown in a 7-6 Yankees loss.
Scutaro hit a 1-0 Rivera pitch high into short right field. It was classic Rivera jamming the hitter. The problem was the ball stayed in the air for a bit and as it came down between rain drops and wind gusts, it bounced off Thames’ glove.
“I was coming in and I just took my eye off the ball,” Thames said. “I was anticipating [Robinson Cano] being in front of me, but I called the ball. It has to be caught. I’m a major league player and I’ve got to catch that ball and I didn’t and it caused us to lose the game.”
With the error, the Red Sox began a big inning. Scutaro and Darnell McDonald both scored on a Jeremy Hermida double to give Boston a 7-5 lead.
As it became clear Hermida’s ball was going to clear left fielder Randy Winn, Thames shook his head in right and hit his glove.
It was Thames’ second error of the season. His other one came against the Red Sox at Fenway Park when he was playing left field.
Thames would not blame the windy, rainy conditions for the play.
“I don’t want to make any excuses,” he said. “It was bad the whole game. There’s no excuses at all. I’ve got to make that play.”
Thames has been a strong hitter for the Yankees, but his fielding is a problem. He homered off Jonathan Papelbon to end Monday’s game and got a celebratory whipped-cream pie to the face.
Joe Girardi played Thames in right for the third straight day with Nick Swisher unable to play due to a strained left biceps. Swisher was the only outfielder on Girardi’s bench. The team sent Greg Golson back to Triple-A before the game in order to bring up pitcher Mark Melancon.
“We’re short,” Girardi said. “We don’t have [Golson]. We made a move before the game, Melancon. You put Swish in there, do you pinch hit for Swish if they bring a right-hander in? It’s what we have right now.”