Yankees’ Greg Bird details how and why he dropped easy throw

Slumping first baseman Greg Bird had Yankees fans on him in the first inning Tuesday night after he dropped an easy throw for an error.

NEW YORK — Yankees first baseman Greg Bird knows how bad he looked in the first inning Tuesday night dropping a routine throw to first after Chicago White Sox leadoff hitter Yolmer Sanchez rolled a groundball to second baseman Ronald Torreyes.

“At that point, it’s like, ‘Really? Right now?'” Bird recalled. “That’s exactly what I need.”

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That’s exactly what it took to unleash a lot of boo birds on Bird, who already was on the bad side of a lot of Yankees fans due to another hitting slump that has his batting average below .200.

By night’s end, Bird laughed off his error even though it led into an 0-for-4 game that left him hitless in his last 21 at-bats and batting .196 for the season.

Bird felt good about barreling up the ball three times in his four at-bats and he felt great about the Yankees erasing a 4-0 sixth-inning deficit to win 5-4 on a ninth-inning walk-off homer by Neil Walker.

And Bird felt relieved that his first-inning drop didn’t hurt the Yankees, as starting pitcher Lance Lynn retired the next three White Sox.

“Lance picked me up,” Bird said. “I owe him a drink for sure because that’s a tough one. The popped just popped out. Luckily it didn’t hurt us.”

Bird blames himself for making a “dumb mistake,” but says it occurred because he was using a new glove that wasn’t fully broken in due to a webbing issue with his old one.

‘I’ll catch a ball (with the old one) and I have balls that stick, and eventually one was going to go through, so I switched,” Bird said.

Bird tried out his new glove for the first time in a game last weekend in the one start that he had in Baltimore, Game 2 of Saturday’s day-night doubleheader.

Bird had no luck at the plate, but there were no glove issues, so he used it for his next start on Tuesday.

One embarrassing inning later, Bird put Yankees equipment managers to work fixing his old glove.

“I had them re-lace it, he said. “The pocket was tearing.”

Mission accomplished.

As for his bat … Houston, we have a problem.

Actually, Bird was encouraged by his at-bats, as he lined out to the warning track in right in the third, lined to first in the fifth and lined to right again in the sixth before popping out to third in the eighth.

“Quality at-bats,” Bird said. “You’ve just got to keep going. I keep saying it, but keep going, keep grinding. It’s just the name of the game.”

And first basemen having perfect throws bounce in and out of their gloves isn’t the name of the game.

“Luckily my teammates picked me up to get out of that inning because that was bad,” Bird said. “We won so it makes you laugh a little bit.”

Randy Miller may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.