Pete Kozma wasn’t hiding from his role in Tuesday’s loss. The veteran infielder owned it. He rightfully pointed the finger at himself for botching a potential double-play ball that led to a three-run homer in the Yankees’ 4-1 loss to the White Sox at the Stadium.
“That’s all me. I make that play, there’s two outs, nobody on, and he doesn’t have to make that pitch,” Kozma said after the Yankees’ eight-game winning streak was snapped in The Bronx. “I’m not sure [what happened]. I was right there, and I just missed it.”
The error was pivotal in the defeat. With a runner on first and nobody out in the seventh inning, former Yankee Melky Cabrera hit a routine grounder to Kozma at shortstop. He booted it, and two batters later, Avisail Garcia hammered a Luis Severino hanging slider over the wall in left-center field, extending the White Sox lead to 4-0.
“It’s unfortunate we didn’t turn the double play in the seventh, and it changed the complexion of the inning,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said.
Severino didn’t blame Kozma. The young right-hander faulted himself for throwing a bad pitch to Garcia, a flat slider that got crushed.
“That’s part of the game,” Severino said. “He’s not trying to make an error.”
The 29-year-old Kozma, only on the team because of shortstop Didi Gregorius’s strained right shoulder, likely won’t be around too much longer. Gregorius is expected to begin playing rehab games in Tampa on Friday. When he returns, Kozma likely is gone, with fellow infielder Ronald Torreyes performing so well both in the field and at the plate. And he didn’t exactly endear himself to the Yankees on Tuesday night, either.
“I made that play 101 out of 101 [times],” said Kozma, who also went 0-for-2 at the plate in his third start of the season. “It hasn’t happened to me in probably five years.”