After a mostly sterling display of defense on Opening Day, the Yankees had some struggles in that area on Saturday.
A pair of misplays by Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Joey Gallo in the second inning in part ensured that Luis Severino only went three-plus innings in his season debut, but the Yankees were able to shake them off in aJ.D. Martinez led off the second with a ground ball to shortstop, but Kiner-Falefa was not able to field it cleanly. Alex Verdugo came up next and crushed a Severino fastball into the right-field seats to put the Red Sox up 2-0.
Joey Gallo misplays a ball hit by Trevor Story during the second inning of the Yankees’ 4-2 win oer the Red Sox.“I noticed at the time it was a shadowy part of the [field],” manager Aaron Boone said. “The sun was out early on, so probably didn’t get the best read on it right away.” Kiner-Falefa went on to make a few tough plays at shortstop but also committed a throwing error in the ninth inning that Aroldis Chapman worked around.on Saturday, though there was another brief hiccup in the third inning when Severino got to the mound: He couldn’t hear the command from the audio transmitter.
Aaron Hicks was the odd man out of the lineup Saturday, but he was OK after fouling a ball off his right foot Friday and entered as a defensive replacement in the ninth.