What is a little league home run? Yankees fielding fiasco leads to rare scoring sequence

Rare occurrences like a little league home run in baseball is a reminder that even the top professionals can look like amateurs at times.

That was exactly what happened for the New York Yankees against the San Diego Padres on Sunday night when that rare occurence was recorded against them. The Yankees instead of completing a routine play instead conceded two fielding errors, as Jose Azocar completing an entire run on what should have just been a single.

A little league home run takes place under two conditions:

(1) the batter scores; and either (2a) two or more errors are committed by the fielding team, or (2b) one error is committed on a play which is not an extra-base hit, provided the error is charged to a non-outfielder.

---

How did New York Yankees concede a little league home run?

In the top of the second innings with Ha-Seong Kim on second base, Jose Azocar faced Yankees starter Gerrit Cole.

On a 2 outs 0-1 count, Azocar hit a line drive to center field towards Harrison Bader. The Yanks outfielder trying to get Kim out at the home plate, airmailed catcher Kyle Higashioka who had to run back to collect the ball.

With no backup from Cole, who stood on the mound and noticing that Azocar was advancing to third, Kyle Higashioka threw to third baseman DJ LeMahieu. However, to everyone's surprise, the attempt airmailed, going over the DJ's head, giving the Padres batter to reach home plate for his run.

A single and two errors will be recorded in the official stats of the game between the Yankees and the Padres. As per baseball database, this was the first little league home run allowed by the Bombers in 35 years since July 1988 when Tommy John committed three errors in one play.