Costly Castro error sinks Yankees

NEW YORK – Luis Severino battled his way through six hard innings on Thursday night and would have most likely been in line for a win had his second baseman, Starlin Castro, not booted an easy double play ball. The error was Castro's sixth on the season in 262 chances. The Los Angeles Angels then scored nine unanswered runs as the New York Yankees blew an early 5-1 lead and ended up losing 10-5. The top of the seventh inning is where things went wrong for the Yankees. Cliff Pennington led off the inning with a single to right field, which put Severino well over 90 pitches. Then, Cameron Maybin hit a grounder to second base which should have been fielded cleanly by Castro for a double play but the ball took a funny hop and Castro was off-balance. An error was made which gave the Angels runners on first and third with nobody out. The Angels ended up scoring four runs on three hits and two errors in the seventh, ultimately putting the game out of reach for the slumping Yankees.

The reason why this was such a pivotal moment in the game is because the Yankees were clinging to a one run lead and a double play would have killed all momentum that the Angels had going for them in that inning. Overall, pitching has been the reason for the Yankees’ struggles of late. In six out of their last nine games the Yankees have allowed at least seven runs, making it a tough task for the offense to try and win the game. With CC Sabathia on the disabled list, the Yankees’ pitching staff is thin and they are not playing nearly as well.