The New York Yankees had an impressive offensive performance on Sunday afternoon against the San Diego Padres. The same can not be said about their defense, as a plethora of errors led to an embarrassing “Little League Home Run.”
New York has star pitcher Gerrit Cole on the mound, which most would expect means that very little offense would come from the opposing side. However, he got into some trouble in the top of the second inning, which was only made worse by the Yankees’ struggles in the field.
Cole allowed a single into center field from Padres outfielder Jose Azocar with a runner in scoring position at second base. Yankees center fielder Harrison Bader had a play at the plate if he had a good throw to home plate, but instead completely airmailed catcher Kyle Higashioka, letting the runner score easily.
Azocar decided to take second base when the throw came in at home. Once the throw went way over the catcher’s head, he attempted to get to third.
Higashioka would have easily thrown him out at third base, but he airmailed the third baseman into the outfield, allowing Azocar to get home.
One of the sloppiest/saddest plays you'll ever watch from a professional team pic.twitter.com/nc4qBWDJZc
— gabe (@PlayoffTanaka_) May 28, 2023
It is indeed a moment that Yankees fans would love to remove from their memory. Many took to social media to criticize their sloppy defense on this play.
Someone needs to get ripped.
And Higgy has ZERO room for error on this team. #RepBx— The Yankees SuperFan (@YanksSuperFan) May 28, 2023
For the Yankees being the Yankees…they sure are making a lot of errors.
— Sara (@saralowpez) May 28, 2023
Was going to pop on the #Yankees game but saw that Cole has turned back into a HR machine and 2 errors from sloppy play has got them down already. Don’t need that negativity.
— Van Zant (@daltonvanzant) May 28, 2023
A couple of errors from the @Yankees results in a José Azocar "inside the park home run" and a 3-1 @padres lead #LetsGoPadres
Hey @CandyDigital are you watching this 🤣 #POTW pic.twitter.com/gJH6XWkFlk
— Phileas Foggs (@PhileasFoggs) May 28, 2023
This team in a sad joke 🥲 https://t.co/oILLXu1DcL
— Orozco Octavio (@betocto) May 28, 2023
You have to go pretty far back to find the last time the Yankees allowed a Little League Home Run. The last time it happened dates all the way back to 1988, according to YES Network’s James Smyth.
Jose Azocar has the first Little League Home Run against the Yankees since:
7/27/1988 vs MIL (Jeffrey Leonard scores on 3 Tommy John errors)@SABR really has everything! https://t.co/Ne4L8WuUjQ
— James Smyth (@JamesSmyth621) May 28, 2023
Luckily, their offense came to life and bailed them out in a big way. They scored seven runs in the bottom of the third inning, which helped them cruise to a 10-7 victory.
7-spot in the 3rd 🙌 pic.twitter.com/wZbWMYFObB
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) May 28, 2023
[New York Yankees on Twitter] Photo Credit: YES Network
