Aaron Judge honestly addresses Yankees’ defensive struggles

The New York Yankees had another rough day in the field on Wednesday as the team committed four errors in its 8-4 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays. The Yankees had seven errors in the three-game series against their AL East rivals.

New York has gone 1-6 with 11 errors in seven games in Toronto this season. Following the latest loss, Aaron Judge was asked about the team’s fielding issues north of the border.

“We haven’t been playing that well on defense,” the Yankees captain acknowledged after a lengthy pause, per YES Network. “We’ve got a lot of things we’ve gotta clean up and that’s one of the things we’ve gotta clean up. So going into this off day we’ve just gotta refocus and just tighten it up a little bit on defense,” he added.

“To give any good team extra outs, that’s not going to go well for us,” Judge said.

Sloppy play dooms Yankees in Toronto

After shortstop Anthony Volpe struggled with errors in each of the first two games against the Blue Jays, the Yankees came undone on Wednesday. Max Fried’s throwing error in the fifth inning allowed two runs to score. Then a fielding error by first baseman Ben Rice gave Toronto a 6-4 lead in the sixth inning.

Left fielder Jasson Dominguez also had a fielding error in the seventh, allowing Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to take an extra base. And second baseman Jazz Chisholm added a throwing error of his own in an all around sloppy game.

Judge, who dominated defensively in New York’s series against the Chicago Cubs, was DHing in Toronto on Wednesday.

The Yankees lost the division lead when they were swept by the Blue Jays at the beginning of July. The team had a chance to make up some ground in the AL East but New York is now four games behind Toronto after losing a mistake-filled series.

The Yankees will look to regroup at home against the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday. Rookie Will Warren will take the mound for New York as the Phillies send start veteran hurler Taijuan Walker.