Yankees rookie Jorbit Vivas has come under fire after falling victim to Ronald Acuna Jr’s stunning 301-foot throw on Friday night.
New York had two on and one out when Atlanta Braves superstar Acuna Jr. humiliated Vivas. After catching a fly ball from Cody Bellinger, the outfielder launched a remarkable throw that saw Vivas tagged out as he ambled from second to third base.
The double play ended the Yankees inning and left Aaron Judge on deck. New York went on to lose 7-3 to a struggling Braves team in Atlanta and Vivas came in for heavy criticism. The Yankees announcers on YES Network branded his actions ‘inexcusable’.
‘That can’t happen. Those are little things that cost you a chance to have Aaron Judge hit with first and third,’ former Yankees manager Joe Girardi said on air.
‘You just took the bat out of Aaron Judge’s hands. First of all, you’re not running hard to third, then you don’t slide. As you said, perfect word, inexcusable,’ Michael Kay added.
Jorbit Vivas (L) has been slammed after falling victim to Ronald Acuna Jr’s (R) 301-foot throw
New York had two on and one out when Vivas was tagged out as he ambled to third base
After the game Yankees manager Aaron Boone revealed that he told Vivas: ‘You can never let that happen again.’
Boone added: ‘Jorbit is a guy that plays his tail off… he’s a hard-nosed player and he got caught up there. Obviously a situation that can’t happen.’
Vivas took responsibility for the blunder, admitting the double play was ‘on him’. ‘He’s standing there and it looked like he wasn’t receiving the ball at all,’ Vivas said about Acuna Jr, through an interpreter.
‘But that’s not on him; it’s on me there to make it to that base. Acuna has a really strong arm and he can make a throw from anywhere. That’s on me.’
Yankees third-base coach Luis Rojas urged Vivas to slide but the rookie said: ‘I picked him up kind of late… the third baseman was standing there a little bit in the way. But it’s my fault.’
