With a bad inning, the Yankees lost a game.
With a worrisome dive and a pop that Anthony Volpe said he heard, they hope they have not lost something and someone much more important.
The everyday shortstop was sprawled on the outfield grass for several minutes after hurting his left shoulder trying to corral a Rays single, talked his way into remaining in the game and then made the error that scored the go-ahead run in a 3-2 loss in front of 44,051 in The Bronx on Saturday.
The Yankees wasted home runs from Aaron Judge (up to 11 on the season) and Austin Wells, as well as a solid spot start from Ryan Yarbrough.
Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe (11) makes a fielding error in the eighth inning of Saturday’s loss.Bill Kostroun/New York Post
Yankees pitcher Mark Leiter Jr. (56) is pulled from the game during the eighth inning.Bill Kostroun/New York Post
An encouraging afternoon took a turn for the worse — and they hope not the worst — in the eighth inning.
The Yankees began the frame up, 2-1, before Christopher Morel ground a single into the shortstop hole that Volpe chased and attempted to stab with a full-extension dive — and then remained down as the ball caromed off his glove.
Volpe held his shoulder and was put through a battery of tests by a trainer.
Anthony Volpe stayed in the game after hurting his shoulder.Bill Kostroun/New York Post
They had company.
Manager Aaron Boone watched while a swarm of Yankees — Judge, Trent Grisham, Cody Bellinger, Oswaldo Cabrera and Jorbit Vivas — took a knee around Volpe.
“It happened quick. It was scary,” said Volpe, who added he heard the pop but did not need the shoulder popped back in. “After that I felt OK, and I felt like I had my strength. They tested me, and I felt good.”
Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe (11) is checked on by his teammates.Bill Kostroun/New York Post
Physically, at least.
If the Yankees breathed a sigh of relief, more immediate worry then set in about the game itself.
Mark Leiter Jr. walked Brandon Lowe to put two on, and a double steal (the Rays’ fifth and sixth thefts of the afternoon) put two in scoring position.
Curtis Mead’s single tied the game before José Caballero sent a ground ball up the middle that might have been an inning-ending double play but wasn’t.
Volpe ranged behind second base, tried to corral the ball and scurry to the bag but couldn’t get a handle, the ball squirting away with no out recorded and the go-ahead run scoring.
“Trying to turn two before I secured the ball,” Volpe said.
Aaron Judge homered for the Yankees in the loss.Bill Kostroun/New York Post
“I don’t think he’s going to turn it there anyway,” Boone added after the Yankees (19-14) split the first two games of the series.
The Yankees’ best chance to take the lead back vanished in the bottom of the inning when Judge stepped to the plate with runners at the corners and two outs but grounded out against righty Edwin Uceta.
Volpe did not get a late at-bat but said he was able to swing in the indoor cage.
He said X-rays came back “fine,” but further tests could be ordered. He was planning to see how he felt Sunday and then would reevaluate.
Austin Wells also clubbed a home run in the loss on Saturday.Bill Kostroun/New York Post
Did he dodge a bullet?
“That’s what I hope,” said Volpe, who then cautioned that he has “never been in this situation.”
The Yankees have not been in this situation either, Volpe’s glove a mainstay at shortstop since he arrived in 2023. In three years, he has missed five games and has played in every contest this season.
Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe (11) throws out Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Taylor Walls (6) during the 9th inning of the Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays game at Yankee Stadium.Bill Kostroun/New York Post
His hot-and-cold bat has been more the former than the latter recently, his OPS up to .768 amid a 10-for-29 (.345) stretch with a homer and five doubles in his past eight games.
If Volpe has to miss time, Oswald Peraza and Oswaldo Cabrera would be the most natural fill-ins and could form a very different double-play combination with Vivas, who himself is stepping in for the injured Jazz Chisholm Jr.
The day started and ended poorly for the Yankees, who scratched Clarke Schmidt with side soreness that the club does not believe is serious.
Yarbrough (four innings of one-run, one-hit ball), Ian Hamilton, Fernando Cruz, Leiter and Tim Hill pieced together a strong bullpen game in which only Leiter faltered (and not egregiously in an inning that saw well-placed contact).
The inning also saw another scare for a team that lost Gerrit Cole, Luis Gil, Giancarlo Stanton and DJ LeMahieu in camp and Chisholm and Marcus Stroman in-season.
“We’ll see,” Volpe said.
