Yankees defense falls apart in tough loss to Red Sox: Didnt do a good job

BOSTON — The Yankees have stayed atop the AL East even in Aaron Judge’s absence for numerous reasons, but playing clean baseball could be at the top of the list. With less margin for error, there’s less room for defensive mistakes.  Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Greg Joyce about the inside buzz on the Yankees.So the season-high four errors they made in Thursday’s 6-3 loss to the Red Sox at Fenway Park were especially tough. And even as they made the most errors in a game since the four they committed in a loss to Boston at Yankee Stadium last Aug.

21, there were even more miscues than the ones that made the stat sheet. “We just didn’t do a good job taking care of the ball,’’ Aaron Boone said.“It’s not up to where we’ve been playing or capable of playing.

Ultimately, it was too much to overcome.” Among the culprits was José Caballero, whose defensive versatility is part of what the Yankees were looking for when they acquired him from Tampa Bay last season. But they probably didn’t foresee him starting in left field five times over an eight-game period as he’s been forced to with Judge and Trent Grisham sidelined. Caballero avoided making an error and made a nice running catch on Wilyer Abreu’s fly ball to deep left to open the bottom of the seventh, but his errant throw on Jarren Duran’s very shallow fly ball two innings earlier allowed Ceddanne Rafaela to score and helped Boston take control of the game. The fact that Rafaela even tried to score on the play indicated what the Red Sox thought of Caballero in left. “I try to help the team as much as I can,” said Caballero, who has started eight games in left in his career.“We have a lot of needs in the outfield right now.” Asked if he was surprised Rafaela was sent, Caballero said he anticipated it. “They’ve been challenging me a lot,” Caballero said of opposing teams looking to take advantage of...