Yankees takeaways: Lousy loss to Reds includes sloppy play, Anthony Volpe beef

NEW YORK — If anyone bought their dad a ticket to Sunday’s game at Yankee Stadium for Father’s Day, they probably wish it had come with a gift receipt. The New York Yankees took an ugly 4-1 loss to the Cincinnati Reds, dropping a three-game series to the team currently in last place in the National League Central. Though even with the defeat, the Yankees remained atop the American League East by two games. Here are three takeaways from an afternoon much of the Bronx would like to forget: The Yankees had a brutal eighth inning, even if it led to them surrendering just one run. With the perpetually struggling Camilo Doval on the mound, Spencer Steer hit a soft grounder up the middle. It bounced four times before it reached second baseman Jazz Chisholm, who whiffed on the backhand. The ball then got past shortstop Anthony Volpe, who was half-heartedly backing up Chisholm. It continued to trickle into center field, where José Caballero gathered it and tried to throw it back to Chisholm at second base. But he overthrew Chisholm, and Doval didn’t try to stop the ball on its way toward home plate. The ball then rolled all the way to the backstop. The sloppiness allowed Steer to race all the way to third base. (The official scorer awarded him a double, though the grounder had gone under Chisholm’s glove in the infield.) Boone said he thought Caballero was “a little slow to react” to Chisholm missing the ball. “And then we didn’t play catch well,” the manager said. “We threw it around. Can’t allow him to get to third base in that situation. But Jazz — even if he comes up with it is not going to have a play on Steer (at first base). It’s not hit hard enough, and where it is, he’s just trying to do-or-die it. But even if he comes up with it, I don’t think he has a play.” Still, Chisholm could have kept the ball in the infield, or Volpe could have been in position to knock it down. Then Steer scored when Noelvi Marte hit a long fly ball to the right-field corner with one out. Jasson Domínguez, inexperienced at the position, covered a long distance but wasn’t able to snag it near the wall before it bounced over the wall. That allowed Steer to score for a 4-1 Reds lead. Boone explained it away as “just another one of those balls that’s kind of just perfectly placed. I don’t know if there are a lot of guys making that play from where JD started.” • Caballero was caught stealing second base for the first out in the second inning when he slid too far past the bag. Shortstop Edwin Arroyo held the tag on him. • Domínguez appeared to misread a line drive from Sal Stewart in the fifth inning that zipped over his right shoulder and bounced off the wall, starting in on it before needing to chase it down behind him. • In the seventh inning, the Yankees tried one of their most precarious defensive lineups of the season with Domínguez in right field, Caballero in center field, Max Schuemann in left field, Amed Rosario at third base and Ben Rice at first base. • The Yankees went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position and 2-for-32 in the series. In the sixth inning, the Yankees had runners on the corners with two outs for pinch hitter Paul Goldschmidt, who dominates lefties, against southpaw reliever Sam Moll. But Goldschmidt hit a lazy fly ball to right field on the first pitch he saw to end the threat. Volpe seemed close to boiling over at first base umpire Brian O’Nora after Chase Burns picked him off in the third inning. Volpe argued that Stewart’s right foot was blocking his path to first base as he tried to slide back headfirst. “I had nowhere to go,” Volpe said. Volpe added that he told O’Nora to watch the replay on the big scoreboard in center field. “He told me he didn’t want to watch it on the screen,” Volpe said. “He said the throw took him there, which I didn’t (see). But that’s up to him.” In the next at-bat, Rice hit his 22nd home run of the year to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. “I think the letter of the law, that’s blocking the base there,” Boone said. “Are you really going to get that call very often? Probably not. Burns has one of the really good pick-off moves in the game. But he’s also slow to the plate.” The Yankees took advantage of Burns’ slowness to the plate, stealing six bases — their most in a game since 2013. Yankees righty Elmer Rodríguez lasted four innings. All three of the runs he gave up came on Tyler Stephenson’s fourth-inning home run. He pitched well through the first three innings, which included a 1-2-3 second frame. But since Rodríguez made his debut earlier this season, he hasn’t lasted five innings in any of his five starts. Rodríguez entered the season as the Yankees’ No. 6 prospect and started Sunday in place of ace Gerrit Cole because the Yankees wanted to give each of their starters one more day of rest. Boone said he thought Rodríguez’s effort Sunday was “the best he’s thrown since he’s been up (in the majors)” but that he fell behind in counts and got into trouble in the fourth inning.