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Indians gift Yankees an important win with boneheaded errors

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Last year the Indians were the American League’s best fielding team, committing the fewest errors in the junior circuit.

That same fielding success hasn’t carried over to 2018 as they’ve dropped to 10th in the AL with 57 errors. Perhaps no two errors were as critical as the ones that may have cost Cleveland a victory over the New York Yankees on Saturday.

The game was knotted at four in the top of the seventh inning when Austin Romine, normally the Yankees backup catcher, came to the plate. Romine is filling in for the injured Gary Sanchez and the career backup did his best Sanchez imitation with a double to the gap in right center field.

Then, a scene from a Little League game took place at Progressive Field.

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Right fielder Brandon Guyer bobbled the ball while trying to get it back into the infield, which then enabled Romine to reach third base.

Once Guyer threw it to second baseman Erik Gonzalez for the relay, Gonzalez seized his opportunity to put his name in the error column with a two-hop throw to third base that hit a sliding Romine in the back.

The ball continued all the way to Cleveland’s dugout where it appeared pitcher Mike Clevinger had an opportunity to corral it and stop the bleeding. But the ball took a funny bounce and Clevinger said trying to grab it was like “chasing butterflies.”

The backspin from the ball made it bounce into Cleveland’s dugout and Romine was awarded home for a Little League home run, which was officially scored as a double and two errors.

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That run put the Yankees ahead 5-4 and it proved to be final run of the game. Romine, who has just one triple in his entire eight year career, wasn’t used to running that fast for that long.

“It was unknown territory for me to head to third, and it turned out good,” Romine said. “Crazy hops like that happen when you’re playing hard. I don’t think I’ve ever had one of those. I’m too busy trying to hit real home runs. I don’t think I even had one back in Little League.”

Romine’s teammates had as much fun with the play as he did by making it around the basepaths.

“Why does everybody have fun watching a catcher trying to run to third?” Romine joked after the game.

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The Yankees are sure having fun with the second-best record in baseball. With the Red Sox also winning on Saturday, New York (62-32) remains 3.5 games behind the Red Sox (67-30) in the AL East.

The Indians (51-43) lost for the fifth time in six games vs. the Yankees this season after being knocked out the postseason by New York last season.

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Ross Kelly has been a sportswriter since 2009.
Ross Kelly has been a sportswriter since 2009 and previously worked for ESPN, CBS and STATS Inc. A native of Louisiana, Ross now resides in Houston.
Location
Houston, Texas
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Sports




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