NEW YORK — George Lombard Jr. made historical past this month when he grew to become the first New York Yankees shortstop to homer in his main league debut.
But three weeks into his profession the rookie tied a doubtful franchise mark by committing an error for the sixth straight recreation in Thursday night time’s 5-1 loss to the Houston Astros.
Lombard has seven errors in his first 20 games and, after his newest miscue, the 21-year-old stated his protection was not acceptable.
“It’s something we’re trying to figure out,” Lombard stated. “It’s not acceptable. It can’t happen at this level. If you make your pitchers have to get extra outs it just makes it way harder on us, and teams are going to capitalize. So it’s something that we’re definitely going to have to clean up and I’ve got to be better tomorrow.”
With Christian Walker on second base in the eighth inning, Yainer Diaz hit a grounder that caromed off Lombard’s glove for the first error on the play. The ball ricocheted to 3rd baseman José Caballero and he was charged with a throwing error for his wild toss to first as Walker scored Houston’s fifth run.
“The one today, it’s kind of that in-between ball. So you’re like, is the third baseman getting there?” Yankees supervisor Aaron Boone stated. “Is he not? There’s a little indecisiveness there. So I think that played into that a little bit.”
Lombard grew to become the first Yankees participant since Chick Fewster in 1921 to commit an error in six consecutive games in a season, in keeping with ESPN Research. On Wednesday night time, Lombard misplayed a grounder by Walker in the seventh that allowed the tying run to attain earlier than the Yankees pulled away for a 9-3 victory.
The streak can also be the longest in the majors since Cleveland’s Mark Lewis dedicated an error in seven straight games in 1992, per ESPN Research.
Lombard has a .925 fielding proportion and has turned 15 double performs after the Yankees used Anthony Volpe and Caballero at shortstop till calling up their prime prospect. New York shortstops have mixed to make 16 errors.
Last season, Volpe led American League shortstops with 19 errors whereas taking part in with a torn labrum in his shoulder for the ultimate 4 months.
“The good thing about George is you know he’s so skilled and gifted out there and foundationally he’s really good, too,” Boone stated. “So he will get through it.”
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.