With Jasson Dominguez and Spencer Jones now patrolling the outfield in The Bronx, the Yankees’ Triple-A outfielders might need some refreshing on the basics of baseball.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre right fielder Yanquiel Fernandez seemed to forget the score Friday night when he dove for but didn’t catch a fly ball that could have ended the game.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre led, 8-7, with Columbus down to its final out in the first game of a doubleheader.
Clippers catcher Bo Naylor lifted the shallow fly ball that bounced in front of Fernandez.
Instead of hustling after the ball, Fernandez jogged and let it roll as the tying run scored from first base and Naylor came all the way around on a walk-off inside-the-park two-run home run.
Second baseman Marco Luciano ran out to the outfield to get the ball and fired back to the plate. Catcher Austin Wells — on a rehab assignment from the Yankees — couldn’t corral the one-hop throw as Naylor slid across the plate.
Fernandez, 23, is not among the Yankees’ top 30 prospects, according to MLB Pipeline.
He either gave up on the play or thought that the game was tied when the ball was hit and the first run had won the game.
Fernandez has 15 home runs this season and was named International League Player of the Week for May 18-24, but Jones and then Dominguez were the regular Triple-A right fielders before the injuries to Aaron Judge and Trent Grisham, respectively.
Fernandez made his MLB debut with 52 games for the Rockies last season. He is a former top 100 prospect in MLB.
When Scranton took the field for the nightcap of the doubleheader, Fernandez was back in right field — to the shock of old-school minds who expect punishments for mental mistakes. He hit a two-run homer.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
