{"id":673775,"date":"2026-04-12T03:54:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T03:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/673775\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T03:54:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T03:54:18","slug":"yankees-aaron-boone-admits-he-should-have-made-a-pinch-hitter-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/673775\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees’ Aaron Boone admits he ‘should have’ made a pinch hitter move"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Aaron Judge stood at third base as the go-ahead run with two outs in the top of the ninth inning Saturday when the Rays intentionally walked Ben Rice to bring up Randal Grichuk.<\/p>\n

Aaron Boone let Grichuk hit for himself in the right-on-right matchup against reliever Hunter Bigge and did not have much of an explanation afterward for why he did not send up Paul Goldschmidt as a pinch hitter instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cFair. Definitely could have, should have, whatever,\u201d Boone said after a crushing 5-4, 10-inning loss at Tropicana Field. <\/a>\u201cBut definitely some consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grichuk, who had entered the game as a pinch runner for Giancarlo Stanton in the eighth inning, was off to an 0-for-9 start to the season and made it 0-for-10 when Bigge needed just one pitch to get him to fly out to end the ninth inning.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust felt like it was a good spot for [Grichuk] too,\u201d said Boone, who confirmed Goldschmidt was available off the bench. \u201cBut fair question.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Yankees'Randal Grichuk, who has yet to get a hit this season, watches the flight of his home run during a Yankees\u2019 spring training win over the Cubs on March 24, 2026. AP<\/p>\n

Bigge has reverse splits for his career, which is likely why the left-handed-hitting J.C. Escarra did not pinch hit for Grichuk. <\/p>\n

But neither did Goldschmidt, and the missed opportunity loomed large as the game went to extra innings and eventually turned into a fourth straight Yankees loss.<\/p>\n

Signed during spring training to be a lefty crusher, Grichuk has started the season 0-for-10 with five strikeouts. Eight of those at-bats came against left-handers.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s played a couple games, hasn\u2019t gotten results, [but] he\u2019s hit a couple balls on the screws, hit one good to center [Friday] night,\u201d Boone said before the game. \u201cThen obviously to start the year, with all the righties we had initially, there weren\u2019t a lot of opportunities. So physically, I feel like he\u2019s in a good place. Not a lot of spring at-bats, but hopefully as we get settled into the season and he gets some opportunities against some lefties, he\u2019ll produce.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge could get his second DH day of the season Sunday, with Stanton heading to the bench for the series finale against the Rays. Boone had initially planned to do that Saturday, but after the Rays bumped lefty Shane McClanahan from Sunday\u2019s start, Stanton will likely sit Sunday against righty Drew Rasmussen.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGo beyond the box score with the Bombers\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Yankees by Greg Joyce, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

As Ryan McMahon works to get his bat on track \u2014 he went 1-for-2 Saturday before being pinch hit for by Amed Rosarioin the seventh inning against a lefty \u2014 the Yankees are still counting on him being a staple in the lineup at third base any time Max Fried is on the mound, given his propensity for generating ground balls to the hot corner.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s kind of Ryan\u2019s superpower, especially as he tries to get it going here offensively,\u201d Boone said. \u201cThe one thing we can count on is how good he is on that left side. With Max going, usually he\u2019s pretty busy over there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Aaron Judge stood at third base as the go-ahead run with two outs in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2376],"tags":[5,4,1690,62,2548,2547,185,142],"class_list":{"0":"post-673775","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-yankees","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-yankees","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkyankees","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-yankees"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116389719690514982","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}