Torres did not run out a ball that bounced off the left-field wall and was held at a single. He was thrown out at home and later removed from the game by the Yankees’ manager.
Gleyber Torres has had a hard and frustrating season. Both he and the Yankees expected more from his walk-year into free agency, but he has dropped from a 116 OPS+ in 2022-23 to a disappointing 86 OPS+ in 104 games in 2024. There have been defensive breakdowns, baserunning errors, and far too many ineffective at-bats for a starter on a competing team. Aside from a few of multi-hit games, it’s been more of the same as the second half begins and the Yankees battle the Orioles for the AL East title.
The Yankees’ annoyances look to have reached a boiling point in their 8-5 loss to the Blue Jays. Marcus Stroman put them behind early on Friday night, with Toronto scoring three runs in the first inning. New York soon responded, with Aaron Judge hitting a monster shot to make the score 3-2. An inning later, Torres came up with one down and lined a ball off the left-field wall, leaving the fans humming. Even though he hit it at 110.7 mph, there was a good opportunity for a double.
Unfortunately, Torres squandered the opportunity by watching the ball in the batter’s box, like Josh Donaldson did. By the time he realized it wasn’t going out, he had little chance of moving up to second, so he stayed in first.
It was an unpleasant sight, and it became worse when Anthony Volpe doubled down the left field line. Torres was thrown out at home after being sent out by third-base coach Luis Rojas.
The send may be questioned, but to their credit, the Jays executed a beautiful relay here to defeat Torres at home. The problem, of course, was that if Torres had been on second base with a double, he might have easily scored to tie the game.
It looks like Yankees manager Aaron Boone was thinking the same thing. Torres remained on defense for the next half-inning — YES Network announcers Joe Girardi and Michael Kay noted that players who make the final out frequently linger on the field, waiting for someone to bring their glove — but was replaced at the keystone by Oswaldo Cabrera in the fourth.
YES had raised the prospect of an injury after Torres landed awkwardly while attempting to make a play on Ernie Clement’s grounder up the middle in the top of the third. However, their camera later showed Boone conversing with an enthusiastic Torres, so it does not appear to be injury-related.
We’ll have more on this story as it develops, but if it was truly about responsibility, all we can say is that it’s about time — and as Chris Kirschner of The Athletic pointed out on Twitter, other Yankees have been guilty of this as well. Although Stroman’s poor pitching across 2.2 innings may have made a 7-2 hole more difficult to overcome than Torres’ lack of hustle, plays like that just cannot happen for clubs that want to win it all. It is better late than never to deliver a message, I guess.
Boone confirmed that Torres was indeed pulled for the no-hustle single, though he clearly wanted to move on from the questions in the postgame. The plan is for him to be back in the starting lineup tomorrow.
