Gleyber Torres' error opens door for Cubs' comeback in series win over Yankees

Pinning the loss entirely on Gleyber Torres wouldn’t be fair.

Rarely does one play lead directly to a loss.

But it was  easy — and not entirely unfair — to draw some kind of line between Torres’ error in the seventh on what should have been an inning-ending double-play ball and the 7-4 loss to the Cubs at the Stadium on Sunday afternoon that officially closed out the Yankees’ up-and-down first half.

“I made that mistake,” Torres said. “And I think that cost us the game.”

The Yankees (49-42) — who fired hitting coach Dillon Lawson after the game — got another excellent outing from Domingo German and back-to-back home runs from Anthony Volpe and Kyle Higashioka in the sixth. They took a 4-1 lead into the top of the seventh after Volpe hit a two-out, two-run shot and Higashioka lined an 0-and-2 changeup over the rightfield fence against Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks.

Even though German had allowed only one hit, a tying home run by Seiya Suzuki to lead off the fifth, and was at only 74 pitches after a leadoff walk to Ian Happ in the seventh, Aaron Boone pulled him. Six relievers would follow, most of whom failed to get the job done.

After Ian Hamilton got Suzuki to foul to first and Cody Bellinger singled, Christopher Morel hit a sharp grounder to second that should have resulted in a routine 4-6-3 double play. But Torres, who said he “rushed,” had the ball hit him in the heel of his glove and glance off his right calf before he drop-kicked it with his left foot into the middle of the diamond, loading the bases.

In came Tommy Kahnle, who entered the day riding a career-best scoreless streak of 19 2/3 innings dating to last season. Jared Young bounced out to Anthony Rizzo at first to bring the Cubs within  4-2. Kahnle got ahead of pinch hitter Yan Gomes 0-and-2, but on the next pitch — a  96-mph fastball that was above the strike zone — Gomes flared a two-run single to center that tied it at 4-4. All three runs in the inning were unearned.

“It happens. It’s part of it,” Boone said of Torres’ team-high ninth error. “Unfortunately, it kind of got us today.”

Two starts after pitching a perfect game, German was charged with two runs (one earned), walked three and struck out nine.

“It’s understandable to question the decision,” Boone said of removing him when he did. “Just felt like, especially Domingo coming off the perfect game and last time being a little bit fatigued, obviously threw the ball great . . . but with Suzuki getting him the time before and a couple of walks in the final two innings, we were just lined up. The reality is, Hamilton came in and got a pop-up and a double-play ball and then we’re handing the ball to Tommy and Clay [Holmes to close it out]. But fair question.”

German, who did not allow a hit before or after Suzuki’s homer over leftfielder Billy McKinney's attempt to make a running, leaping catch at the wall, said “of course” when asked if he could have stayed in the game.

“At the end of the day, it comes down to a decision and Boone making the decision, and he has the knowledge to do so,” German said through his interpreter.

Ron Marinaccio, a bit shaky of late, started the eighth, allowed a leadoff single by former Yankee Mike Tauchman and then walked Nico Hoerner and Happ to load the bases. In came Holmes, who had a 0.71 ERA in 25 1/3 innings since May 6. With the Yankees employing a five-man infield, all playing at the edge of the infield grass, Suzuki sent a sacrifice fly to right, and when Giancarlo Stanton threw the ball toward the plate instead of third, Hoerner also moved up. With Bellinger up, Holmes airmailed one to the backstop for a wild pitch that made it 6-4.    

After a 23-minute rain delay, Michael Fulmer allowed a two-out single by Higashioka (three hits) in the bottom of the eighth but Torres lined out softly to short.

The Cubs — very possibly a trade partner for the Yankees, as Bellinger is very much a player of interest — tacked on in the ninth on an RBI double by Tucker Barnhart off Nick Ramirez to make it 7-4.  

“As I just told the group, these guys are competing their butts off,” Boone said of his postgame message to the team before it dispersed for the All-Star break. “We’ve obviously been pretty banged up and guys have stepped up. What I love is we’re walking into the second half with everything in front of us . . . It’s certainly not been exactly how we wanted the first half to go, but we’re in position to do something special and reach all our goals.”