Yankees’ Aaron Boone admits 2nd guess on head-scratching decision

BOSTON — Aaron Boone sounded like he might have wanted a mulligan.

The Yankees manager’s infield defense decision came back to bite his club as the Red Sox rallied late in a 5-4 win at Fenway Park on Sunday night.

Keeping the middle infielders back wound up allowing Boston to tie it on a routine grounder in an eighth inning that sank the Yankees.

“In hindsight,” Boone said, “that’s the one that you kind of question (yourself) about.”

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The Red Sox had already rallied for three runs in the eighth inning to cut the Yankees’ lead to one when pinch hitter Kevin Plawecki stepped to the plate with Franchy Cordero on third base and no outs.

Boone had the corner infielders play in but left his second baseman and shortstop back with groundball pitcher Zack Britton on the mound. It didn’t work. Plawecki hit a soft grounder to shortstop, and Cordero scored without a throw to tie the game.

“That’s the one where you think about going all the way in there,” he said. “With no outs, I just didn’t want to get beat with something soft.”

He added, “Should we have just sold out with no outs there? That certainly debatable.”

Boone said it would have been a “no-brainer” to him to pull the entire infield in if there was one out, however.

It was the Yankees’ second bullpen meltdown that led to a brutal loss just this series. On Thursday, Chad Green blew a save opportunity, and then Brooks Kriske threw a franchise-record four wild pitches in the 10th inning that led to the loss.

The Yankees are nine games behind the first-place Red Sox in the AL East and they are four games behind the second Wild Card position.

Later, Boone said it was reasonable to question whether he should have allowed the spent Jonathan Loaisiga to pitch to Kiké Hernandez rather than bringing in Britton. Hernandez would double in a run, and then score the go-ahead run on Xander Bogaerts’ sacrifice fly to right field.

“I liked the matchup,” he said of Loaisiga vs. Hernandez. “But it’s a fair question.”

The Yankees are nine games back of the first-place Red Sox in the American League East and four games behind the second Wild Card spot. Fangraphs puts their chances at making the playoffs at 33.2%.

“Definitely seems like over the last month (or) month a and half, we’ve had some really tough ones that we’ve had to get past or get through, and time and time again these guys have done it and continue to reveal their character,” Boone said. “Look, it’s been a difficult season to this point. No question about it. But to these guys’ credit, they continue to get off the mat time and time again and will do it again.”

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Brendan Kuty may be reached at bkuty@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.