Yankees blanked by Marlins, with Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s baserunning mistake a lowlight

MIAMI — Austin Wells got some cover for one of the worst baserunning gaffes in years by a Yankee on Wednesday night, as his teammates freed him from the goat horns with a victory in 11 innings after he forgot the number of outs in the ninth, left second base and was tagged out.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. received no such deodorant to cover a just-as-bad blunder on the bases Saturday afternoon in a 2-0 loss to the Marlins in front of 34,645 at loanDepot park.

And both the second baseman and first-base coach Travis Chapman heard about it from Aaron Boone.

Afterward, Boone said he accepted Chisholm’s explanation for getting doubled off first to end the second inning on a pop-up in front of him — more on that in a bit — but pushed back on the narrative (which goes back years) about the Yankees routinely making boneheaded plays on the bases.

“I would argue with you that we’re not making, in comparison to the league, a number of outs advancing or outs on the bases. I don’t think that’s true,” Boone said. “But when you’re the New York Yankees and you’re losing and you make a mistake, [it’s like] ‘look what just happened.’ I can show you around the league, it happens all the time.”

Boone, whose team was held to two hits, was just getting started.

“Doesn’t make it OK. We want to be as clean and as perfect as we can be, without question. Don’t get it twisted. Don’t think [I’m saying],‘Oh, yeah, it’s fine.’ It’s not fine,” Boone said. “But [stuff]  happens sometimes, too. Really good teams that are buttoned up make a mistake trying to advance or run into an out or kick a ball. We have to be better. Don’t get it twisted . . . We’ve got to be better, period. We have really good players. I think we have a really good team. We haven’t realized our potential yet. We’ve got to get there. We’ve got a couple months to do it and we better hurry.”

The Yankees (60-51) — who could have moved within 2 1/2 games of the AL East-leading Blue Jays on Friday night but blew 6-0, 9-4 and 12-10 leads — fell 4 1/2 games behind Toronto and a half-game behind the second-place Red Sox. The Yankees have lost 26 of their last 44 games.

As for the Chisholm play, it occurred in the second inning with the Yankees trailing 1-0. Chisholm worked a leadoff walk, and one out later, Paul Goldschmidt hit a routine pop-up to second.

After faking a steal of second, Chisholm maintained that big lead off first — seemingly baiting or daring second baseman Xavier Edwards as he watched him catch the pop-up — and the alert Edwards nailed him diving back to first.

Chisholm, who spent the first five seasons of his career with the Marlins, said he felt Edwards intended to let the ball drop in order to swap out the slower Goldschmidt at first.

“He deked it like he was going to do it. He didn’t do it,” Chisholm said. “Still trying to be aggressive because I’ve played here before, I know how the field plays. Sometimes you get aggressive and you get caught up and make an out . . . He deked it pretty well like he was going to drop it. I saw him watching Goldy the entire time. I would want to get me off first base too. I’ve done it here many times.”

Between innings, YES Network cameras caught Boone lighting up Chapman in the dugout.

“Just wanting to make sure how we’re communicating there,” Boone said. “Obviously, not a play you want to have happen.”

Hard-throwing Marlins righthander Eury Perez (4-3, 2.70 ERA) allowed two hits and three walks in six innings in which he struck out five. The last 14 Yankees batters were retired and the Marlins faced only three more batters than the minimum.  Because of the futile offense, Chisholm’s mistake remained on the front burner in terms of the focus after a  forgettable afternoon.

The Yankees, who put only two runners in scoring position, saw Trent Grisham easily thrown out at the plate to end the first inning. Third-base coach Luis Rojas waved him home on a 110.7-mph  single to left by Giancarlo Stanton that quickly found Kyle Stowers, who threw Grisham out by 10 feet.

“I think it was a little aggressive, but I understand the two-out situation there and you’re forcing a good throw,” Boone said. “With two outs, probably a little too aggressive, but I understand the rationale.”

Oddly,  a player the Yankees traded to the Marlins as part of a package for Chisholm just over a year ago accounted for Miami's two runs.

 After Cam Schlittler struck out Edwards looking at a 98-mph fastball and Stowers swinging at a 99-mph fastball to begin the first inning, Agustin Ramirez jumped on a down-the-middle 3-and-1, 98-mph fastball and hammered it 421 feet to left for a 1-0 lead.

Ramirez struck again in the fourth, this time blasting a high-and-outside 1-and-2 sweeper 418 feet to center to make it 2-0. It was his 17th homer.

Ramirez also won Friday’s game, 13-12, with a dribbler that moved about two feet from home plate.

Rookie righthander Schlittler was the best he’s been in four big-league starts. He allowed two runs, four hits and two walks in five innings in which he struck out six.

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.