Casey Stengel once said, “Most ballgames are lost, not won.”
The Rays proved the legendary manager right yesterday with an abysmal defensive performance in the seventh inning that handed the Yankees a 1-0 victory in front of 47,350 fans at Yankee Stadium.
Robinson Cano led off the inning with a single and was on first base when Jorge Posada hit a soft fly ball to shallow center. B.J. Upton raced in to make the catch, and with Cano scampering to get back, fired an off-balance, errant throw that landed in the Yankees dugout. The two-base error sent Cano to third with one out.
Upton was bothered by his miscue, speaking in a hushed tone after the game of the running throw.
“That play pretty much decided the game,” Upton lamented. “Just overthrew it. If I make a good throw, he’s out. I didn’t rush it.”
Russell Martin grounded out for the second out of the inning. Then, with Brett Gardner at the plate, Rays right-hander James Shields attempted to pick off a sleepy Cano at third, but overthrew his target, allowing Cano to score the Yankees’ only run on a day when neither team was doing much offensively. Gardner eventually flew out to end the inning.
“Gardner was up to bat and he had a 10- or 11-pitch at-bat against me the at-bat before,” Shields said. “So I knew he’s a battler. He’s going to put the ball in play. So that was my opportunity to end the inning right there. Had him picked off. [Cano] was walking down towards home plate. All I had to do is lob the ball over there and I end up airmailing it. I’m not going to think twice about it.”
Cano knew he was dead, saying, “Oh my God, he got me.”
Rays manager Joe Maddon remained positive, even saying he “loved” the pick-off attempt.
“It was a great play,” Maddon said. “He was out by 10-15 feet. . . . It’s something we work on. [Shields has] picked off two guys that way this year. It’s a good baseball play that we work on, and of course, it was there for us.
“James kind of threads the needle most of the time with that stuff. And I loved it. I was absolutely good with that play and we just did not execute it.”