CHICAGO -- You can make a strong argument that Didi Gregorius has been the best all-around player on the Yankees' roster this season, but the shortstop had an afternoon of defensive lapses on Monday, costing his club in an 8-2 loss to the White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field.
Gregorius had the first three-error game of his career as the Yankees dropped the opener of a three-game set, booting two balls and throwing another away. It was an uncharacteristic showing for the 26-year-old, whose game has improved greatly over the last year-plus.
"I was trying to read the ball, but it's a terrible day," Gregorius said. "I tried to read the ball, and even [had] a couple of bad hops, but tried to stay with it. I made three errors today, but tomorrow's a new day so I don't worry about that."
Gregorius also went hitless in the loss, which saw the Yankees go 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position and leave 11 men on. He couldn't field Jose Abreu's third-inning ground ball, air-mailed a throw to first base on Jason Coats' fourth-inning grounder and flubbed Tim Anderson's roller in the eighth.
"It looked like some balls came up on him today," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "I thought one came up on their shortstop [Tim Anderson], but he was able to recover. It's just unusual to see that from Didi. I'm not too worried about that."
Gregorius had not committed an error since May 26 against the Blue Jays, and had never made more than one error in 423 big league games prior to Monday. He said that he would try to forget quickly.
"You don't have to worry about it," Gregorius said. "If you keep thinking about it, then it's going to keep going on and keep going on. Today, it already happened, I can't change the past, and tomorrow's a new day. I look forward to that."
The performance came a few hours and about 2,000 miles after Gregorius dazzled in Sunday's win over the Padres in San Diego, where he contributed a leaping grab to steal a hit from Alexei Ramirez and made a flawless barehanded pickup on a slow Wil Myers roller.
That has been more characteristic of the way that Gregorius has played all year, and by and large, he said that he has been pleased with his fielding.
"It's always been confidence," Gregorius said. "My feeling has always been good. Bad day today, and it's just the past. Nothing I can do. I can't go back in time and take it back. I made an error. Just get past that. It cost us a couple of runs, but nothing I can do about that now. Tomorrow's a new day, and just focus on that one."