Yankees Win, But Juan Soto Was in the Wrong on Interference Call

There was a lot happening Wednesday night as the Yankees pulled out a 2-1 victory over the Angels behind yet another eye-popping outing by Luis Gil in a game where Juan Soto made a dumb play. And down in Box Score Briefs, the Mets have lost their way, the Cardinals have found their way, one impressive streak continued, and one came to an end. Let’s get to it.

May 29: Yankees 2, Angels 1

This probably won’t be a popular opinion, but from my view Juan Soto interfered with Zach Neto on that first-inning pop up Wednesday night that killed an early chance for the Yankees to break out on top. Sorry Yankees fans, but that’s how I saw it.

The Yankees loaded the bases with nobody out as Anthony Volpe singled - yes, that’s now a 21-game hitting streak - and Soto and Aaron Judge walked. Then Giancarlo Stanton swung at the first pitch and I didn’t have a problem with that because Angels pitcher Tyler Anderson threw it right down the middle. I mean it was a center cut 80 mph slider that didn’t slide. The problem is that Stanton popped it up rather than mashing it somewhere, which was maddening.

It was a high pop right near second base and Soto had plenty of time to get back to the bag as it began to descend and Neto was settling underneath it. And here’s where things went haywire. Neto had drifted in front of the baseline but had to suddenly jump back because he misjudged the ball.

Meanwhile, for some reason Soto was initially slow getting back to the bag and when he saw what was happening, he had to take a few quick steps and he collided with Neto while thrusting his foot to the base. In doing so he shoved him in the back with his forearm and Neto went down as the ball hit the ground.

Second base umpire Vic Carapazza immediately called Soto out for interference, and because the infield fly rule was already in effect, it turned into a double play. I understand why Aaron Boone was upset, and I get that Soto’s path back to the bag was blocked, but if he had just gone back right away, there would have been no interference because he has the right to be on the bag.

“The only time they’re protected is if he was on the base just standing there,” Carapazza told the pool reporter after the game. “So I had him interfering with the infielder and called the infield fly first, which now the batter is out. The interference after that was the second out.”

It was the right call, and Boone admitted it afterward. “By the letter of the law, probably the right call,” he said. “Juan’s in jeopardy of getting doubled off if he doesn’t get there. If you don’t nail the get-back in the right exact way … he just got stuck with Neto probably misjudging it a little bit and backing into him. So it’s like, what are you to do as a runner? Obviously a wonky play. Tough way to start things when you load the bases in the first inning and you got a really good pitcher on the ropes.”

Again, sorry, but that was on Soto, and thankfully it didn’t cost the Yankees the game. I’m sure many of you will disagree with my take here.

Here are my observations:

➤ That play overshadowed the three primary storylines in this game: Luis Gil was outstanding, Clay Holmes nearly blew another game, and for the second night in a row the Yankees offense managed all kinds of traffic but was terrible in delivering runs.

➤ Let’s start with that last point. Anderson has a 2.47 ERA for a bad Angels team so he’s a good pitcher, but he gave up four hits and six walks in five innings. Yet the only run against him was Alex Verdugo’s homer leading off the fourth inning. The Yankees left seven men on base while Anderson was in there, and 11 overall as they went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position. Stanton had the biggest fail with his double play pop up, and he also grounded into a DP in the ninth.

➤ The only other run the Yankees scored came in the seventh when Volpe tripled to right and was awarded home when the throw to third went out of play. Volpe was great in this game as he also made one of his best plays of the season in the field, a diving backhand stop in the sixth on a hot shot by Nolan Schanuel and then he got up and threw him out.

➤ Now to Gil. Unreal. He pitched a career-high eight innings and gave up only two hits and two walks while striking out nine. The only run came on a seventh-inning homer by Logan O’Hoppe. His ERA dipped to 1.99 and in six May starts, get this: 6-0 record, 38.2 innings, 14 hits and 12 walks allowed, 44 strikeouts, a 0.70 ERA and a .109 batting average against. Honestly, that may be the best month any Yankee pitcher has ever had.

➤ Lastly, there was Holmes. He’s back to driving us crazy. He pitched the ninth and Luis Rengifo singled, Holmes wild-pitched him to second as the tying run, and then walked Taylor Ward. However, he recovered by getting Willie Calhoun to ground into a double play started by Gleyber Torres, and with a man on third, got O’Hoppe to ground out to DJ LeMahieu at third to end it. Phew.

⚾ Holy shit, the Mets have imploded in spectacular fashion. They were 18-18 on May 7 after a 7-5 victory over the Cardinals and since then, they’ve lost 15 of their last 19 games including eight of the last nine. The only win came Sunday when they rallied for three runs in the bottom of the ninth to beat the Giants 4-3.

Wednesday, they got blown out 10-3 by the Dodgers who completed a three-game sweep by breaking a 3-3 tie with six runs in the eighth, four off ex-Yankee Adam Ottavino and the last two off Jorge Lopez. Here was Lopez’s contribution: He replaced Ottavino when it was 5-3 and LA had two men on base. He immediately made an error on a pickoff throw to first putting men on second and third, and they both scored on a double by Miguel Vargas. After an out, Lopez served up a two-run homer to Shohei Ohtani that made it 9-3.

Next, he argued a checked swing by Freddie Freeman and he was ejected from the game and as he left the field, he threw his glove into the crowd. After the game, he called the Mets “the worst team probably in the whole fucking MLB.” The Mets’ then designated him for assignment.

As if that wasn’t enough, the Mets, who are now 22-33 and are 16 games behind NL East-leading Philadelphia, announced that slumping closer Edwin Diaz - who had a 9.58 ERA with three blown saves in his last 10 appearances - is going on the injured list with a throwing shoulder impingement. And then in the first inning, first baseman Pete Alonso got hit on the hand by a pitch from the Dodgers’ James Paxton and had to come out.

⚾ On the night of May 11, the Cardinals blew a 3-2 lead when Rhys Hoskins hit a three-run homer in the seventh inning to give the Brewers a 5-3 victory. St. Louis was 15-24, last place in the NL Central, nine games behind Milwaukee and the talk was that the roster would be purged at the trade deadline.

Four weeks later, after a 5-3 victory over the Reds Wednesday afternoon, the Cardinals are back to .500 at 27-27 and their 12-3 run has them right in the hunt for a wild-card berth and just 4.5 games out of first in the division. One of the keys for the Cardinals has been the play of rookie shortstop Masyn Winn who extended his hitting streak to 18 games with a 3-for-4 performance. That’s now the second-longest hitting streak for a Cardinals rookie, trailing only the 25-gamer by Joe McEwing in 1999.

⚾ Speaking of hitting streaks, Arizona’s Ketel Marte had a 21-gamer snapped last week, and now he has gone 0-for-20 in the five games since including an 0-for-4 Wednesday as the Diamondbacks lost 6-1 to the Rangers. That completed a two-game sweep for Texas in a rematch of the 2023 World Series.

⚾ In that game, Rangers second baseman Marcus Semien did not play and that snapped his consecutive games played streak at 349. He’s not hurt, but manager Bruce Bochy just felt he needed a break because across his last 13 games he’s hitting .130/.203/.296 with a .500 OPS.

His regular season streak is the third-longest in club history and the top two marks are held by ex-Yankees: Mark Teixeira 507 games in 2004-07; Alex Rodriguez 482 in 2001-03). The longest active streak is 510 by Matt Olson of the Braves, a streak that began during his time with the A’s. Semien has never been a fan of getting days off in the season. In his 11-year career entering this season, he has played a full 162 games three times and at least 155 games four times.

⚾ Remember last Sunday when the Padres’ Jeremiah Estrada struck out all five Yankees he faced when San Diego averted the sweep? Well, that gave him 10 straight whiffs across two games, and then Tuesday, he struck out three more to give him 13 straight strikeouts, the most since the expansion era began in 1961.

Estrada joined the Padres this season as a waiver claim after the Cubs released him in November while he was celebrating his birthday. He appeared in 17 games with Chicago in 2022 and 2023 and in 16.1 innings he struck out 21 men so the stuff has always been there, but this has been ridiculous. He has a 0.55 ERA and a 7-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio this season.

⚾ There were two great pitching performances in Detroit Wednesday. In the first game, Tarik Skubal threw seven, three-hit shutout innings with eight strikeouts as the Tigers beat the Pirates 8-0. In the nightcap, Pirates rookie phenom Paul Skenes pitched six innings and gave up two runs on three hits with nine K’s as Pittsburgh won 10-2. Skenes’ ERA is now 2.45 through his first four highly-watched starts.