DJ LeMahieu’s lack of mobility at second base has become glaring.
Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s throws — perhaps because of a sore shoulder — have hurt the team in the past week.
Trent Grisham misread a deep fly ball Sunday that became a long single.
Defensive issues just about everywhere have haunted the Yankees during a slump that has lasted longer than anyone expected.
So of course it was outstanding glovework that guided the Yankees out of their skid.
Cody Bellinger pulled off one of the best — and most daring, considering the lack of any other Yankees defender in the vicinity — shoestring catches you will see, which began one of the better double plays you will see, to help preserve Sunday’s 6-4, sweep-averting victory over the Mets at Citi Field.
“Considering the context of this week and everything,” manager Aaron Boone said after his club snapped a season-high six-game losing streak, “that’s probably our play of the year so far.”
The Mets had scored four runs in the fifth and sixth innings and cut the deficit to two runs entering the bottom of the seventh. A shaky Yankees bullpen was not inspiring confidence, and Mark Leiter Jr. entered and hit his first batter in Francisco Lindor.
Juan Soto, the potential tying run, lashed a 105 mph, sinking liner to left, a position that might be Bellinger’s fourth best. He has played center field, right field and first base far more often in his career, but Grisham’s generally strong work in center, Aaron Judge in right and Paul Goldschmidt at first have turned Bellinger into a roving defender.
But an outfielder knows to hunt fly balls, and so he charged while understanding the stakes: If the ball skated by him, there was nobody nearby, and a triple or even game-tying inside-the-park home run could have developed.
“That’s why they’re the hardest plays, I think, the low line drives,” Bellinger said. “You have no one to back you up.”
He read the ball off the bat well and got a good jump. He reached his right hand down and grazed his glove along the grass, needing every inch of a mitt that closed on the ball just before reaching green.
Unlike most in the ballpark, he believed he had caught the ball. But unlike most Yankees fans in the park, he had no time to celebrate.
Bellinger took a couple of steps, used a crow hop to gather momentum and launched a dart to first base, a strike that Goldschmidt caught just before Lindor slid into the bag for a game-changing double play.
“That was incredible. I’ve never seen something like that on the field,” admired Judge, who watched the play from right field. “Especially a guy like Soto — I’ve seen him hit so many line drives over outfielders’ heads when they come in too hard.
“Perfect read on the ball, came in, shoestring catch, and then to throw Lindor out at first — an all-around perfect play.”
By a player who played first base Saturday, center field Friday and right field Thursday. Bellinger shrugged at his own flexibility and said playing left is similar to right. He has felt comfortable everywhere after a spring training in which the Yankees moved him around plenty.
“That Cody Bellinger presence of mind thing that he has,” Boone said. “We’ve seen it all year with him defensively. Just a really special play.”
The Mets — who could have tied the game if the ball got behind Bellinger — did not reach second base again the rest of the game.
“It was a game-changing play,” Goldschmidt said of the play by Bellinger, who also chipped in a pair of hits and a walk. “Actually, a game-winning play.”
