The play that will linger past Sunday night in the mind of Gleyber Torres — and likely plenty of Yankees fans — happened in the seventh inning with a one-run lead in ALCS Game 4.
With one out and Jose Altuve on first, Jeremy Peña hit a tailor-made double-play ball to second base, where Torres scooped it up and shoveled to second. But his throw was off target, and shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa was unable to adjust to catch it, allowing both runners to be safe.
The Astros took advantage, recording singles in their next two at-bats to turn a one-run deficit into a 6-5 lead that stood as the final score to cap off their four-game sweep of the Yankees.
“Both really fast runners, I think I rushed a little bit myself to make that play,” Torres said. “I feel like it’s my mistake. Kiner tried to do his best, but I feel like, all season long, I do that play really easy. Tonight, it felt a little bit rushed.”
Torres had been much improved defensively this season while moving back to second base full time, but his error proved costly on Sunday.
“I feel terrible in the moment because I know we can make the double play and finish the inning in that moment,” Torres said. “I made that mistake. I feel like I need to learn to be a little more in control in that situation. It’s a tough loss.”
Kiner-Falefa, making his first start at shortstop since Game 1 of the ALCS, said the throw from Torres was too far away for him to grab.
“It was hard — he threw it hard,” Kiner-Falefa said. “Normally that one all year would be like a soft flip so we can turn it, but kind of rushed it a little bit and I didn’t have time to reach over. If I reached over, I would have maybe caught the ball, but I wouldn’t have been able to stay on the base, so I was still trying to take the option to still get an out. But it was too far for that, so it got by.
“It’s not his fault though because he played great all year.”
— Additional reporting by Mark Sanchez
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