A New York Yankees minor leaguer will have some questions to answer after he essentially blew a game by giving up halfway through a play.
The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders, the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate, lost the first game of a doubleheader 8-7 in walkoff fashion on Friday against the Columbus Clippers at Huntington Park in Columbus, Ohio. The game-winning hit was an inside-the-park home run by Clippers catcher Bo Naylor.
Naylor hit a fly ball to right that RailRiders right fielder Yanquiel Fernandez dove for and missed. Instead of hustling for the ball, Fernandez more or less got up and gave up on the play, even though he could have preserved a tie game by getting the ball back to the infield.
Fernandez was so done with the play that second baseman Marco Luciano had to run out to right field to retrieve the ball in a futile bid to stop Naylor from rounding the bases and scoring.
INSIDE THE PARK HOMER FOR BO NAYLOR #ClipShow pic.twitter.com/Nngr406aQ9
— Columbus Clippers (@CLBClippers) June 20, 2026
Either Fernandez thought the game had already been tied or he just gave up. Neither of those explanations would be particularly satisfying for his teammates. Getting the game to a ninth inning was certainly plausible, especially since this happened with two outs.
Fernandez is hitting .249 with 15 home runs this season, but plays like this will undoubtedly hurt his chances of getting promoted to the big leagues. After all, that sort of thing is not tolerated at the MLB level, and it would probably get the young outfielder benched.
