The one area of George Lombard Jr.’s game that the Yankees were banking on not being an issue as they dropped him into a playoff race, failed him over the past week.
But they continued to trust the 21-year-old’s other calling card to bust him out of it, and Friday, they were rewarded for it.
Lombard snapped his six-game error streak — something no Yankees shortstop had done since 1915 — by playing a clean game in a 1-0 win over the Red Sox, adding a strong play up the middle in the eighth inning to help keep the shutout intact.
“I didn’t realize he was having a tough week,” veteran first baseman Paul Goldschmidt said. “I think he’s done so many good things and has so many good at-bats. We know there’s going to be ups and downs. I guess there’s some plays he could have made, but the feeling in the clubhouse is we’re happy to have him. He’s been doing a great job. We know he’s going to make some great plays, have some good at-bats and [be] a really valuable part of this team.”
The Yankees were relying on Lombard’s makeup and work ethic to play his way out of the defensive slump, and he did just that Friday. He did not get a ball hit to him until the eighth inning, when Caleb Durbin hit a grounder up the middle that Lombard ranged to and threw on the run from behind second base for the out.
George Lombard Jr. throws out Caleb Durbin at first base during the eighth inning of the Yankees’ 1-0 win over the Red Sox on Aug. 28, 2026 at the Stadium. AP
“Obviously, six games in a row, I get it, you never want that,” manager Aaron Boone said. “But I really trust the kid and the person and the talent. So I think he’ll get through this and it’s a bump. There’s been some plays where he’s attacked a little bit differently or they’ve been in-between plays where he’s attacked a little bit differently. But I do feel like his work and his fundamentals will serve him well and pull him through.
“Even just listening to him [Thursday] night in his postgame [interview] and our little touch points with him, he’s more pissed off about it than he is deer in the headlights about it. I think he’s an outstanding defender, and I think that will prove itself here over time.”
Throughout his time in the minor leagues, Lombard, who went 0-for-2 with a walk in the Yankees’ win, was known more for his glove than anything else — save for his makeup and high baseball IQ.
George Lombard Jr. backs up on a grounder during the eighth inning of the Yankees’ loss to the Astros on Aug. 27, 2026 at the Stadium. Robert Sabo for NY Post
The Yankees were confident that those tools could help carry him early on as he got his feet underneath him after he was called up in early August to replace Anthony Volpe with the club trying to chase down the Rays for the division and hold off the surging Red Sox behind them.
And while the recent string of errors has become impossible to ignore, the Yankees do not seem concerned about it shaking Lombard’s confidence, nor do they believe that it is anything more than just a poorly timed stretch.
“I feel like he’s handling it really well,” infield, baserunning and first base coach Dan Fiorito said. “He comes in here, we’ll talk about the night before, the good, the bad, we’ll work on it, we’ll train. He seems so confident.
“This is definitely not characteristic of George to see it. I feel like watching him and seeing how poised he is and how he’s responded in each game after the misplay has been encouraging.”
No coach on the Yankees staff has seen or been around Lombard more than Fiorito, the former minor league coach who came up through the farm system with the top prospect. And while Lombard dazzled defensively in his first few weeks as a big leaguer before this stretch, the ability to make highlight-reel plays wasn’t what always stood out to Fiorito.
“I always say, being with him in the minor leagues, watching him for years, the thing that stuck out to me was more the consistency,” Fiorito said. “It was his reliability. It was his ability to dominate the routine play. It was a little bit of a tough stretch lately, but that’s something that he’s always done really well and he’ll get back to that.”
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After Lombard — who is out on the field pregame almost every day taking ground balls — said Thursday night that the errors were “not acceptable, can’t happen,” the mounting miscues had not appeared to affect his mentality Friday.
“I still trust myself,” Lombard told The Post’s Jon Heyman. “I want every ball hit to me and I know I’m going to make the plays. But it’s definitely frustrating.”
There were no indications that the Yankees were considering any roster changes like bringing back Volpe, who is in the midst of making a transition to second base (though he is still making occasional starts at shortstop, as he did Friday with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre).
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Lombard had seven errors in 947 innings at shortstop in 2025 between Double-A and High-A. This year, in 536 innings between Double-A and Triple-A, he had nine errors.
That made his six errors over the last 50 innings before Friday even more stunning and head-scratching, if not concerning to the Yankees.
“I think he has the confidence he’s going to make them, we do as well,” Fiorito said. “He’s out there trying to make plays and help us win.”