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NEW YORK (AP) — Josh Donaldson went into a house run trot too quickly — and his newest failure to hustle was an embarrassing out within the playoffs.
Leading off the fifth inning for the New York Yankees of their AL Division Series opener Tuesday evening, Donaldson despatched an opposite-field drive to proper towards Cleveland starter Cal Quantrill with the rating tied 1-all.
Sure the ball would clear the brief porch at Yankee Stadium, the veteran slugger put his head down and slapped palms with first base coach Travis Chapman as he jogged across the bag.
Little did Donaldson understand, the ball was nonetheless in play. As a fan in a Yankees jersey reached for it, the ball ricocheted off the highest of the fence proper again to rookie Óscar González, who alertly fired to shortstop Amed Rosario at second base.
By the time Donaldson appeared up, he was trapped between first and second. He tried to scramble again to first, however Rosario threw to first baseman Josh Naylor, who tagged out Donaldson as he dove headfirst again towards the bag.
A confused Donaldson pointed towards proper area and unfold his arms — however replays confirmed the ball by no means cleared the wall. A video evaluation confirmed the decision by proper area umpire Mark Ripperger that it was not a house run and the ball remained in play.
Donaldson was credited with a single.
It was hardly the primary time Donaldson’s lack of hustle turned a problem for the Yankees this yr.
In his first season with the crew after arriving from Minnesota in a March commerce, the 2015 AL MVP didn’t run onerous on a groundout in May — and supervisor Aaron Boone took discover.
“Donaldson probably took his eye off it for a second,” Boone stated then. “Now and then, you’ve got to say something. I’ve not said something yet.”
But on Sept. 5, the 36-year-old Donaldson was tagged out at second on an RBI single off the bottom of the left area wall. Appearing to suppose he had homered, Donaldson broke slowly out of the field, and Aaron Judge scored on the play simply earlier than Donaldson was tagged out.
Boone pulled Donaldson apart and had a phrase with him.
“Let’s not let that happen,’” Boone stated he advised Donaldson.
“I don’t really worry about him from the game or hooked up standpoint; he’s locked in,” the supervisor added. “Yeah, that’s one of those, you’ve got to make sure. You better be sure.”
New York scored a run within the fifth following Donaldson’s gaffe, and Anthony Rizzo added a two-run homer within the sixth on the way in which to a 4-1 victory. Game 2 within the best-of-five sequence is Thursday evening at Yankee Stadium.
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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