On August 27, 2026, George Lombard Jr. committed an error in the eighth inning against the Houston Astros — his sixth in six consecutive games. According to Stathead analyst Katie Sharp, he’s the first Yankees shortstop to reach that mark since Roger Peckinpaugh in 1915, a streak that now stands 111 years old. New York lost 5-1, dropped two of three in the series, and sits second in the AL East, 4.0 games behind the Tampa Bay Rays.
How the streak built
When Lombard was called up from Triple-A on August 4, nobody was questioning his glove. Over his first 14 games he committed just one error, and the conversation was whether his bat could carry the job. Then came Toronto.
Between August 21 and 23, three errors in three games. The fourth and fifth arrived in the first two games of the Houston series. With that fifth error, Lombard matched Álvaro Espinoza, who in 1989 had set the longest single-season error streak by a Yankees shortstop — a record that had stood untouched for 37 years.
Then came Thursday. In the eighth inning, with Christian Walker at the plate and the scoreboard already reading HOU 4, NYY 1, Lombard committed error number six. It led to an additional run and closed the game at 5-1. He was no longer tying Espinoza — he’d passed him, setting the longest such streak by a Yankees shortstop since 1915.
Same game, his first triple
The paradox of August 27 is that in the sixth inning of that same game, George Lombard Jr. hit his first career triple in the major leagues. The error and the triple lived on the same scorecard, in the same stadium, against the same team.
The defensive skid hasn’t erased his offensive contribution. At the time of his fifth error (Wednesday, August 26), Lombard was hitting .286/.343/.397 in 70 at-bats — solid numbers for a 21-year-old rookie in his first full month at the big-league level.
Analyst Conor Green projected via Yahoo Sports that at his current error rate, Lombard would reach 45 over 162 games — a frequency only seven players have hit since 1936. But that projection doesn’t quite fit the team-level reality: the Yankees had won seven of their last nine games, including games during this very defensive stretch.
Aaron Boone hasn’t treated the situation as a crisis. According to Heavy.com reports, the manager has framed the errors as part of a rookie’s development process, with no official signals of a possible demotion. The comparison to Anthony Volpe — who was sent back to Triple-A over similar struggles — is floating around fan circles, but for now it’s mostly social media noise.
Where the team stands
The Yankees finished August 27 at 75-58, second in the AL East, 4.0 games behind Tampa Bay. Their rookie shortstop’s error streak hasn’t buried them in the standings — but it does complicate the narrative for a team that needs to win series, not drop them two of three.
The real question isn’t whether Lombard is a bad player. It’s whether a 21-year-old with six errors in six games can stabilize in the middle of a pennant race. The next few games will start writing that answer.
The numbers
George Lombard Jr.’s 2026 Statcast numbers tell the story that traditional stats don’t always capture:
- 75 plate appearances in 2026
- 2 home runs, 6 RBI
- 19 hits · 1 stolen base
- AVG: .265
- OPS: .688
- xwOBA: .285 (expected production based on quality of contact)
- Average exit velocity: 84.8 mph
- Barrel rate: 6.3%
- Hard-hit rate: 32.7% (balls hit 95+ mph)
- Sprint speed: 96th percentile (elite)
