Anthony Volpe’s roller coaster night at center of Yankees’ wild win over Rays

Anthony Volpe did enough offensively to make sure his defense did not cost the Yankees a win they needed to have.

But his defensive issues are not going away.

Volpe made two more errors that overshadowed his solid night at the plate, even though the latter was enough to outweigh the former in a 7-5 win over the Rays on a stiflingly hot Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium.

The third-year shortstop’s throwing error on a flip to second base in the first inning led to a pair of unearned runs against Max Fried.

Then he made another — his MLB-leading 15th error of the year — on a low throw to first base in the ninth that put the tying run on base and extended the game, though Devin Williams picked him up by striking out Jonathan Aranda to end it.

In between, Volpe went 2-for-4 with a home run, two runs, two RBIs and a stolen base.

Volpe giveth, Volpe taketh.

“We’ve got to get over it,” said manager Aaron Boone, who has been Volpe’s staunchest defender through this rough stretch but sounded more stern on the topic Tuesday night. “We’ve got to get through it. One thing for certain, he’s really, really good out there. He’s clearly had some struggles. … We’ll get through it, but obviously there’s been some tough moments here. But for a very talented defender, he will get through it and we’ve got to get him there.”

Anthony Volpe makes a throwing error in the ninth inning of the Yankees’ 7-5 win over the Rays on July 9, 2025.

Volpe, who won a Gold Glove as a rookie in 2023 but has regressed this year both via publicly available defensive metrics and the eye test, made no excuses.

“I’ve got to make those plays, obviously,” Volpe said. “I’ve never really experienced something like this. But you got really good guys around me. I know what I’m capable of. So it’s obviously frustrating, it’s not discouraging. I know the standard I have for myself. I’m just going to keep pushing until I prove it to myself every day.”

Anthony Volpe runs home on an errant throw by catcher Nick Fortes after he stole third base in the fourth inning of the Yankees’ 7-5 win over the Rays on July 29, 2025.

With the Blue Jays getting swept in a doubleheader against the Orioles on Tuesday, the Yankees (58-49) picked up a game and a half in the division standings with the win over the Rays (54-54) to pull back within four games of first place.

On a night when their beat-up bullpen was short, Fried delivered what the Yankees needed, going 6 ²/₃ innings on a career-high 111 pitches while giving up four runs, though only two were earned because of Volpe’s first error — an errant flip to Jazz Chisholm Jr. on what should have been a double play.

Anthony Volpe belts a solo home run in the eighth inning of the Yankees’ win over the Rays.

After allowing a leadoff home run to Aranda in the third inning, Fried retired 14 straight before running out of gas in the seventh.

Cody Bellinger added a three-run shot in the third inning that tied the game and gave the Yankees life before they got active on the bases in the fourth and took advantage of two Rays errors.

Jasson Domínguez dives back into third base safely after going past the bag after tagging up on a fly ball to left field during the fourth inning of the Yankees’ win over the Rays.

Steals by Jasson Domínguez, Volpe and Austin Wells helped set up the three-run rally, with Volpe blooping an RBI single that put the Yankees ahead for good, 4-3.

Volpe later added a 452-foot blast in the eighth inning, his 15th of the season, to make it a 7-4 game.

That gave Williams some extra breathing room in the ninth when, after the closer had already let one run in, Volpe short-armed a throw to first that made things dicier than they needed to be.

“It’s a short hop there, but we can’t be indecisive,” Boone said.

Cody Bellinger belts a three-run homer in the third inning of the Yankees’ win over the Rays.

Volpe chalked it up to being out of rhythm as the “throw just gave out on me.”

After making six errors in his first 67 games of the season, Volpe has tallied nine in his past 39 games. While his bat has always been streaky as a big leaguer, his glove used to be a sure thing no matter what, but that has not been the case of late.

Max Fried picked up his 12th win of the season in the Yankees’ win over the Rays.

In the past, Boone has given some other players going through slumps a few days off for a mental reset, though he declined to say whether he would do so with Volpe.

And while the trade deadline looms on Thursday, with the Yankees’ biggest need being pitching, GM Brian Cashman already said earlier this month that Volpe is their shortstop.

So the work will continue internally to try to get him right.

“You can’t do much extra — Volpe is about as hard a worker as you can [be],” Boone said. “At the end of the day, his confidence should come from the quality of the work and who he is as a defender. That should be an elite defender. We need to get him there. He needs to get through this.”