BOSTON — For the first time since a gruesome ankle injury last May, Oswaldo Cabrera was back in a big league lineup Sunday night.
It did not go as well as he had hoped, though, with a crucial fielding error giving way to a pair of runs early on the way to the Yankees’ crushing 5-4, 10-inning loss to the Red Sox at Fenway Park.
Cabrera went 0-for-3 while laying down a sacrifice bunt that keyed the Yankees’ two-run top of the 10th.
But his fielding error at third base loomed large in the fourth inning.
With a runner on first and one out in a scoreless game, Carlos Rodón got Willson Contreras to hit a hard grounder to third. Cabrera bobbled it and by the time he threw over to first, it was too late.
One out later, the Yankees should have been out of the inning, but instead Caleb Durbin came up next and hit a two-run single in what became a 37-pitch inning for Rodón, a big reason why he only lasted five innings.
The Yankees defense had let them down Thursday night, committing four errors, and then came back to bite them again Sunday.
“When we’re not scoring, we just didn’t play clean enough here this weekend,” manager Aaron Boone said.
Cabrera was making his season debut after being called up from Triple-A on Wednesday as an injury replacement for Ryan McMahon.
It was his first major league game since fracturing his left ankle and sustaining ligament damage on an awkward slide home in a brutal scene in Seattle.
“He’s worked incredibly hard to overcome a really tough injury,” Boone said before the game. “He’s done it with grace and class and hard work, all while being Oswaldo, which is one of those people that makes the room better when he’s around.”
Longtime lefty killer Amed Rosario was in the lineup Sunday against righty Sonny Gray — breaking up his no-hitter in the eighth inning — putting a spotlight on his platoon splits that are the reverse of what he has done for his career.
Entering Sunday, the right-handed-hitting Rosario was batting .280 with an .842 OPS in 53 plate appearances against righties and .218 with a .665 OPS in 86 plate appearances against lefties.
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For his career, he was batting .263 with a .671 OPS against righties and .293 with a .791 OPS against lefties.
“Small sample, that’s what I make of it,” Boone said. “He’s going to kill lefties, I feel like.”
If we played it out another thousand at-bats, I think that would show itself. That said, I think he more than holds his own against righties, too. I feel like he’s a good hitter.”
Trent Grisham (right hamstring strain) is likely to start a rehab assignment Tuesday, which could last only one or two games before he rejoins the Yankees during this upcoming homestand.
He ran the bases again before Sunday’s game at Fenway Park, completing a weekend full of baseball activities.
