The Yankees Trusted Lombard’s Glove and Tied 1915

George Lombard Jr. became the first Yankees shortstop since 1915 to make an error in six straight games, doing it in Thursday’s 5-1 loss to the Houston Astros.

New York handed him the job on Aug. 4 because the glove was supposed to be the easy part.

Cashman Sold a Glove That Was Already Ready

When the Yankees weighed the call-up, the questions were about the bat. General manager Brian Cashman had already answered the other one. In mid-July he told reporters, “Defensively, he’s plug-and-play, ready to go,” a line Bryan Hoch of MLB.com noted Cashman had used more than once.

Lombard was the club’s No. 1 prospect, MLB Pipeline’s No. 14 player in the sport as of the midseason list, and a 26th overall pick in 2023 who signed for $3.3 million. Scouts had been selling the same package since draft night: range, arm, and a chance to stay at shortstop. Pipeline’s August farm list still gave him a 65-grade on defense, the top mark in the system.

He is 21. He turned 21 on June 2. He is 6-foot-2 and about 190 pounds, the son of Tigers bench coach George Lombard, and he had just missed a month in Triple-A with two sprained fingers on his glove hand. That was not treated as a reason to wait. A day after the Aug. 3 trade deadline, with Cashman saying he had “engaged everybody” and found no shortstop upgrade on the market, the Yankees optioned Anthony Volpe and ran Lombard out at Yankee Stadium.

He homered in his second big-league at-bat against St. Louis, the first Yankees shortstop to go deep in a debut. The glove was supposed to be quieter than that swing.

Six Straight Nights, Six Different Misses

Thursday was his 20th major-league game. He had one error through the first 14. Then the ball started moving in ways that do not show up in a highlight clip.

1. Aug. 4, 2026: Debuts at shortstop, homers, and takes the job from Volpe.
2. Aug. 21: The error streak starts against Toronto, the first of a weekend that also includes fumbled grounders and a dropped foul popup.
3. Aug. 25: A throwing error on a Jose Altuve infield single that Jazz Chisholm Jr. knocked down, the ball ending at Luis García Jr.’s feet.
4. Aug. 26: A 105.2 mph grounder from Christian Walker smacks the heel of the glove in the seventh; the tying run scores before New York still wins 9-3.
5. Aug. 27: Yainer Diaz chops a slow hopper that Lombard cannot scoop; José Caballero’s throw sails, Walker scores, and the Astros finish a 5-1 win.

Hoch, who was in the room after the loss, wrote that the Thursday play did not decide the game. Gerrit Cole had already given Houston three runs over six innings, his first start against his old club since the 2022 ALCS, and Jeremy Peña later homered. The in-between hopper still extended a streak no Yankees shortstop had carried since July 1915.

Boone called that last one a decision problem. “The one today, it’s kind of that in-between ball. So you’re like, is the third baseman getting there? Is he not? There’s a little indecisiveness there,” he said. The earlier misses were not copies of that play. One was a popup. One was a heel. One was a rushed throw after a teammate had already made the hard part. The range is showing up. The last step is not.

Elias, via MLB.com, said no player in the majors had errors in six straight games since Cleveland shortstop Mark Lewis in 1992, a run that went seven. ESPN Research added that the last Yankee at any position to do it in six straight was Chick Fewster in 1921. Lombard has seven errors in 20 games, a.925 fielding percentage, and 15 double plays. Bleacher Report counted six errors on 29 chances in this stretch. Arizona’s Geraldo Perdomo has six errors on 516 chances for the season.

The Last Yankees Shortstop to Do This Won an MVP

Roger Peckinpaugh was 24 in 1915, in his third full year as the Yankees’ shortstop, and already the youngest manager in baseball history after a 17-game stint at age 23. SABR’s Peter M. Gordon called him one of the finest defensive shortstops of the Deadball Era, bowlegged, large-handed, with the best throwing arm of his generation.

He also kicked a lot of baseballs. Retrosheet’s 1915 splits credit him with 48 errors in 142 games at short, a.941 fielding percentage, with July his sloppiest month at 10. That is the company the 1915 streak puts Lombard in, and it is also the warning label on the comparison. Scoring was looser. Gloves were smaller. A shortstop could lead the league in assists and still stack errors by the dozen.

Peckinpaugh stayed. He led the American League in assists in 1916 and in double plays the next year. He later won the 1924 World Series with Washington, hitting.417, and in 1925 became the first shortstop named AL MVP. The same man still owns the World Series record of eight errors, from that 1925 meeting with Pittsburgh, a ledger he spent the rest of his life arguing with scorers about. Hoch noted the MVP and the ring in the same breath as Lombard’s 20-game sample, which is the honest version of the history. The 1915 streak did not end the career. It also did not make the next hopper easier.

Why the Yankees Optioned Anthony Volpe

They sat a 2023 Gold Glove shortstop, the first Yankees rookie to win one at the position, because the room and the city had run out of patience with the errors and the bat together.

Volpe, 25, hit.209 as a rookie and still had 21 homers, 24 steals, and that Gold Glove. The next two seasons did not lift the average much. Last year he made 19 errors, tied with Boston’s Trevor Story for the most among AL shortstops, while playing the final four months with a torn labrum after a diving play in May. Surgery came in October. He opened 2026 in the minors, came back, and in 56 games hit.240 with one homer, 19 RBI, and four errors. The Athletic’s Brendan Kuty wrote that Volpe’s career Yankees line sat at.224 with an 85 wRC+ over 528 games, and that after the option he was playing second base in 12 of 15 Triple-A games.

Derek Jeter, speaking on SiriusXM in July while Volpe still had the job, said the club was committed to letting him develop in the majors and added, “It’s tough to go through growing pains at the major league level.” Chuck Murr, writing in Forbes the day of the swap, noted that the same sentence now fits Lombard.

The swap was never sold as a wash. Volpe’s glove had become the thing fans counted. Lombard’s glove was the thing the front office promised would stop the counting. New York shortstops as a group have 16 errors this season. The new one has seven of them in three weeks.

The Bat They Worried About Is Fine

The offensive questions that delayed the call-up have not been the leak.

LOMBARD AFTER 20 GAMES

• The line: He is hitting.264/.316/.389 after going 1-for-4 with a triple in the 5-1 loss, per CBS Sports.
• The extra-base night: That triple off Steven Okert reached the loading dock in left-center, one of New York’s few loud swings against Hayden Wesneski.
• The early heat: As of Aug. 23 he was at.288/.348/.407 with two home runs in 66 plate appearances, a 115 wRC+ in The Athletic’s numbers from the next morning.
• The minors: He hit.284 with 12 homers and 14 steals in 78 games this year despite the glove-hand IL stint, including.312 in 20 games at Double-A Somerset.

Keith Law had him as a no-doubt shortstop who would post high on-base numbers and grow into about 20 homers, and he wrote in July that he hoped Lombard would get a long runway to adjust. The runway is 20 games old and already crowded. The part of the scouting report that was supposed to buy him time is the part that is burning it.

What Gerrit Cole Told a 21-Year-Old

Boone is not sitting him. New York Daily News beat writer Gary Phillips wrote Friday that the manager does not think a day off would help, on the same morning Boston comes in for four games. Boone had already framed the slump as a mental trap more than a talent one.

The good thing about George is, he’s so skilled and gifted out there, and foundationally he’s really good, too. He will get through it. You’ve just got to get a few going and then start playing carefree and easy a little bit.

Aaron Boone, Yankees manager, after Thursday’s loss

In a separate cut carried by the New York Post, Boone said players in that spot stop playing to make every play and start guarding against the next mistake. Cole, who had to cover the extra outs Lombard is now talking about, put it in a veteran’s voice. “Errors happen, unfortunately. Sometimes they happen in groups for everybody,” Cole said. “I think it’s just important to remember he’s a young player and he’s working his tail off to get better.”

Chisholm, his locker neighbor, said the 21-year-old does not look rattled in the field. Lombard did not hide from the other side of that. “It’s something we’re trying to figure out,” he said. “It’s not acceptable. It can’t happen at this level. If you make your pitchers have to get extra outs it just makes it way harder on us, and teams are going to capitalize. So it’s something that we’re definitely going to have to clean up and I’ve got to be better tomorrow.”

He has been through stretches like this, he said, and the way out is the same. Talk to the coaches, find the thing, keep working. The next test is not a closed-door session. It is a packed weekend with Boston.

Four Games With Boston, Starting Tonight

The Yankees are 75-58, four games behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East and two games ahead of the Red Sox for the first wild-card slot, with Cleveland another 7½ games back of New York in USA TODAY’s Friday update. Boston is 73-60. A four-game set in the Bronx can wipe out that two-game cushion or double it.

FOUR GAMES IN THE BRONX

• Friday, 7:15 p.m.: Cam Schlittler (11-6, 2.17 ERA) against Patrick Sandoval on Apple TV+.
• Saturday, 1:05 p.m.: Carlos Rodón against Justin Bennett on MLB Network, the day game of a split doubleheader.
• Saturday, 7:15 p.m.: Max Fried against Brayan Bello on FOX.
• Sunday, 1:35 p.m.: Will Warren against Ranger Suárez.

Lombard said he is excited and that his confidence has not moved. “My main focus is turn the page and want the next ball hit to you and make the next play,” he said. Boston will hit him plenty of those balls, starting at 7:15 p.m.