Aaron Boone doubles down on decision not to walk Shohei Ohtani

Yankees manager Aaron Boone proves he’s getting more delusional by the week with his latest comments on Shohei Ohtani.

If New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone played by baseball’s rules, then he’s already got three strikes. He’s got way more than three, really. He should be out.

First was his irredeemable defense of Gleyber Torres. Then, he regurgitated a word salad when asked whether the Yankees were still championship contenders.

Thirdly, on Monday night, Boone sat and watched Angels star Shohei Ohtani erase the Yankees’ lead in the seventh with a two-run homer. The Angels would go on to win 4-3, and after the loss, Boone’s decision-making naturally came under fire.

A) Why did Boone go with Michael King at that point in time?

B) Why didn’t he walk Shohei Ohtani?

King, who has a 3.33 ERA this year, allowed two earned runs on one hit and three walks. We can chalk that up as a bad performance.

As for the question of why didn’t Boone simply walk Ohtani when the Yankees held a 3-1 lead, Boone responded in the most defensive way possible.

Yankees’ Aaron Boone didn’t even consider walking Shohei Ohtani

Boone emphatically said that he didn’t even consider walking Ohtani in the seventh:

"“I wasn’t gonna put another runner out at second and the tying run on and the go-ahead run at the plate with a two-run lead. Now had [Escobar] gotten to second and we were behind in the count or something, different story.”"

Per Boone’s logic, he was more afraid of the guy behind Ohtani, Mickey Moniak, who is hitting .324 with a .981 OPS and was admittedly in prime form on Monday night. With King ahead in the count 1-2, Boone liked his chances of striking out Ohtani and preserving the Yankees’ lead, but that’s where he went delusional. What kind of coach underestimates the MLB’s best player?

Ohtani being Ohtani blasted his 35th homer of the season to tie up the game, and by the end of the night, it was the Yankees’ turn to “walk” away with their seventh loss of the last nine games.

Forget about a losing mentality — after Monday’s defeat, Aaron Boone has adopted a deranged and borderline neurotic mentality. Last place has his name written all over it.