NEW YORK — The Yankees are back to their old tricks again, and that trick is poor defense. The Yankees defensive woes seem to come up in the biggest of spots in 2025, and on Thursday night, it was no different. The Yankees committed four errors — including three in the second inning alone — and the errors directly correlated to three Boston runs. The Yankees lost by three runs.

“ Just not a real clean game for us.” Manager Aaron Boone said after the 6-3 defeat to the Red Sox. “ A lot of free bases there, so, for the most part, in the first half of the game, we’re able to overcome ’em. Um, you know, Louis [Gil] made a lot of big pitches when he needed to. We were able to get out of a lot of jams and then, you know, they made us pay on the last air there with the Homer. Um, but just, yeah, just not a, not a great night for us.”

In the 27 games against the Red Sox, Blue Jays, Tigers, Dodgers, Phillies, and Cubs — or in other words, postseason condenders, the Yankees record is 8-19, but the more concerning stat is that the Yankees have committed 31 errors in those matchups. Going back to game five of the 2024 World Series, it seems the Yankees errors come at the most inopportune time, and tonight was no different.  Veteran first baseman Paul Goldschmidt committed the fourth — and final — error of the game, allowing Roman Anthony to come to the plate, and he made the Yankees pay with a huge two-run home run that took the wind out of Yankee Stadium.

“I feel like we have great fielders on the team” Yankees second baseman Jazz Chisholm said after the game. “We’ve got a bunch of Gold Glovers in the infield.” I’m glad he mentioned infield, because the Yankees infielders have combined for 52 errors, which is tied for the most errors by any infield in the American League with the Boston Red Sox.

Comilo Doval has not been at his best since coming over from the Giants on the July 31st trade deadline. In his nine outings for the Yankees, Doval has allowed at least one run in five of the outings. That trend continued tonight, giving up a game-tying RBI single to Roman Anthony after walking a batter and giving up a hit. “ Stuff’s really good, obviously.” Boone said. “Again, similar strike throwing, you know, that next level of strike throwing that allows you to be really, really good and really, really sharp out there.” Doval has struggled a lot with his command overall since coming to the Bronx, and it might be a good idea to put him into a lower leverage spot for now to get him back to the pitcher he was for most of his time in San Fransisco.

Luke Weaver also struggled today, taking the loss and giving up an extra-base hit and a run for his second consecutive outing. :”I thought his stuff was fine.” Boone said addressing Weaver’s outing. “Just looked like he was missing off the plate just a little bit.” I thought that Weaver was left in the game for too long in this one. Weaver’s command was way off, walking two batters which is very uncharacteristic of him.

The Yankees pitching staff combined to walk nine batters, and add that with the four errors, thats 13 free bases granted to Red Sox hitters on the night. It’s possible that if those numbers were cut in half — though still a lot — could have given the Yankees a better chance to win the game.

Aaron Boone also made a very questionable decision in the bottom of the seventh inning with Ben Rice on third after a one-out triple and Chisholm Jr. at the plate against the lefty Matz. Aaron Boone had Amed Rosario — who crushes lefties — ready to pinch-hit at any second, and did not deploy him in that spot. Chisholm Jr. would end up striking out and Goldschmidt would ground out to end the inning.

“ We were good with the match up there with Matz” Boone said. “So no, I liked it with Jazz there.”

For a team that always falls back on the numbers, they do not support this decision by Boone, given how well Rosario has hit lefties this season and given that Jazz is not as good against tough lefties. At the end of the day, decisions need to be made based on what is best to give the team a better chance to win a game, and Boone did not do that tonight.

The Yankees have a chance to even the series with their struggling ace, Max Fried, taking the mound opposing Brayan Bello at 7:05pm on Amazon Prime Video, MLB Network or NESN.