Giancarlo Stanton unhappy with himself after poor game in rightfield hurt Nestor Cortes in Yankees' loss

MINNEAPOLIS — While many of the postgame questions late Wednesday night revolved around the surprise of Nestor Cortes turning in his first clunker of the season, Giancarlo Stanton took issue with the whole premise.

“If you don’t have the best defensive plays and you make an inning a little longer for him, sometimes that happens,” Stanton said after Cortes allowed a season-high four runs over 4 1/3 innings of the 8-1 loss that ended the Yankees’ seven-game winning streak.

Stanton, getting the start in rightfield — his first appearance in the outfield since returning from the injured list last Saturday — said he misplayed three balls that cost Cortes.

His misadventures began with two on and one out in the fourth inning of a scoreless game. Former Yankee Gio Urshela lifted a long fly ball to right, where Stanton had a bead on the ball before getting to the track and suddenly appearing to lose his bearings. The ball lodged at the base of the wall for a long RBI single that put the Twins on the board. They added another run in the inning to make it 2-0.

“From my perspective, I was off by a few feet,” Stanton said, indicating several times postgame there were “no excuses” for the plays he didn’t make. “I thought I was closer to the wall, so I was a little off in my depth perception.”

Two innings later, Urshela hit a nearly identical looking ball toward Stanton. For the second time, Stanton seemed uncertain of the ball flight and he made an awkward move toward it just before the ball banged off the wall for a leadoff double. Jose Miranda followed with a blooper down the rightfield line that a hard-charging Stanton, who slid at the last moment in an attempt to catch the ball, couldn’t quite get to, the play scored (correctly) as a double. The Twins scored twice in the inning.

“I was definitely [ticked] off,” Stanton said afterward. “I haven’t had a day like that in a long time, if ever.”

Though Stanton did not get charged with an error on any of the plays — and he shouldn’t have been — that was the least of his concerns.

“I gotta make those plays, put us in a better position to not let the game break away,” said Stanton, who was not in the starting lineup for Thursday night’s series finale. “It’s a continuously evolving game by each play. I’ve just got to put us in a better position to not let the game get away . . . it’s just mistakes that can’t happen.”

Aaron Boone has no plans to change his usage of Stanton in the field. Stanton, though it’s been somewhat forgotten during his time with the Yankees, was a regular in right during the first eight years of his career with the Marlins (2010-17) and was not considered a defensive liability. There were no issues, and some standout play, in his first 19 games in right this season before Wednesday’s difficulties.

“I’ve said this before, he never got the credit [he deserved] for his play out there,” one veteran National League scout said. “You weren’t fitting him for the Gold Glove, but he has a plus arm and pretty much everything he got to he caught. He was really good out there at times.”

Boone, speaking of Stanton’s attributes in the field before Wednesday’s game, echoed some of what the scout said.

“He’s got an accurate arm,” Boone said. “I think he reads the ball well and runs really good routes . . . He’s just very fundamentally sound out there. Obviously not being as fast as he was back in the early days of his career, but I feel like he moves well out there. He gets good jumps on balls. He moves efficiently for balls, and if he gets his hands on it, you’re out."

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.