Yankees ALDS Game 2 Notes: Jon Berti’s first base debut, bullpen picks up the slack

Here are some notes from the Yankees‘ 4-2 loss to the Kansas City Royals in Game 2 on the ALDS…

No worries at first base

First base was one of the big questions entering the postseason after Anthony Rizzo sustained a pair of broken fingers on the penultimate day of the regular season, leaving the club “not necessarily in that perfect situation,” as the skipper said.

In Game 1, that job went to Oswaldo Cabrera – a utility man with all of five starts and 71.2 total innings there in his brief career. But with left-hander Cole Ragans on the mound for the Royals, Boone decided to bypass Cabrera and lefty Ben Rice to give it to Jon Berti, who had never seen action at first base in all of his 3,350.1 innings in the field during his major league career.

“He’s looked outstanding over there, I will say that, in his work,” Boone said before Monday’s game. “He’s played a little bit in spring training over the years, but just a really natural infielder. And just the person that I have a lot of confidence in.”

In a pair of plays in the sixth, the manager’s faith was rewarded: First, when Berti scooped a low throw from Jazz Chisholm Jr. to stop an error from becoming a two-base miscue and then when MJ Melendez cracked a liner 105.3 mph off the bat that he snagged and turned into an inning-ending, run-saving double play with runners on first and second.

“Heck of a play,” Boone said of the unassisted twin killing. “Thought he handled himself really well tonight over there and just all around gave us quality at-bats, too. That was good to see.”

On those at-bats, Berti had a ninth-inning single for a 1-for-4 night with a strikeout.

“He had terrific at-bats all night. The first time he struck out, I felt like he walked on the 2-2 pitch in off the plate, lined out to left, lined out to right, and then a really good at-bat against Erceg there to give us a chance in the ninth,” Boone said.

Bullpen has picked up the slack

On the plus side for the Yanks, the bullpen has not dropped the ball through two games of the postseason.

Aside from Ian Hamilton allowing a single to the first hitter he faced that added the fourth run of the game, the bullpen held the Royals in check, allowing just four hits and two walks over the game’s final 5.1 innings – with eight strikes – needing just 81 pitches (51 strikes) from seven members of Boone’s charges.

Of course, even with the day off on Tuesday, the Yankees will still need a solid outing from Game 3 starter Clarke Schmidt, as the Royals have now seen just about every arm in the Yanks bullpen aside from rookie Luis Gil, who like Berti, would be making a debut in a new role in the postseason.