KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Yankees didn’t hit, pitched worse and continued to field poorly on Sunday.
Predictably a 6-0 loss to the Royals followed.
Perhaps you can cross off Chris Capuano’s unacceptable three-plus innings as rust, because it was his first start of the season. The bats looked like a lineup that had played 30 games in 31 days. But the leaky defense is alarming and needs to be fixed quickly, because the Yankees don’t score enough runs or pitch well enough to overcome the free ones they give away.
“If you want to be successful you have to play good defense,’’ manager Joe Girardi said after watching third baseman Chase Headley and reliever Esmil Rogers commit throwing errors.
In their past four games, the Yankees committed five errors and on Sunday, Headley’s team-leading eighth error led to two unearned runs in the sixth when the Royals extended their lead to 6-0.
Headley fielded Omar Infante’s routine grounder and then threw a lawn dart across the infield that Mark Teixeira couldn’t scoop because it was wide of the bag.
“I didn’t make a good throw. I grabbed two seams, threw it down and it was a poor throw,’’ said Headley, who was visibly upset on the field about the miscue. “It sets a bad tone for the inning and is a play I feel like I should make 100 out of 100 times, so I was a little bit frustrated.’’
When Headley arrived in The Bronx last July, he came with the reputation of having a solid glove and accurate throwing arm. That six of the eight errors this season have been throwing is puzzling.
“It’s not catching the ball, it’s just been some throws,’’ said Headley, who made a combined nine errors last year in 135 games. “I’ll get it cleaned up.’’
The Yankees took the field on Sunday having committed 26 errors. Only the A’s (38) and Rangers (31) had more. Then there was the issue of a MLB-leading 22 wild pitches, for which catcher Brian McCann takes some responsibility.
On Saturday night, CC Sabathia pitched around Jose Pirela booting a room-service double play ball. On Sunday, Rogers didn’t.
Five errors in four games is far too much of a handicap for a team that hasn’t hit in six games and pitched poorly on Sunday.