HAPPY TO GARY THE LOAD
Sanchez homers, guides Hiro’s gem
SEATTLE – The Sanchize continues to terrorize the rest of the American League.
Gary Sanchez homered in the first inning to give Masahiro Tanaka a quick lead, then helped guide the ace to seven scoreless innings, leading the Yankees to a 5-0 victory over the Mariners and another series win.
The scorching-hot rookie was also intentionally walked twice, a rare sign of respect from an opposing manager for a player with roughly three weeks of big-league experience.
“Shoot, if Babe Ruth was hitting behind him, you’d intentionally walk him,” said Mark Teixeira, who happened to be hitting behind Sanchez. “I mean, he’s as hot as any player I’ve ever played with in my entire career. You just don’t see guys doing what he’s doing. I don’t care how old he is.”
Sanchez finished the road trip 10-for-22 (.454) with four home runs, three doubles and five RBI in six games.
“He’s been locked in.” Joe Girardi said. “It’s been fun to watch.”
The Yankees finished their West Coast trip 4-2, winning series in both Anaheim and Seattle. They have won five of their last six series overall, including three straight away from the Bronx for the first time this year.
Sanchez’s home run was his ninth of the year — he now has as many homers in his first 72 at-bats as Alex Rodriguez had in 225 atbats this year – and his eighth in the past 10 games.
The rookie joined Joe Gordon in 1938 as the only Yankees ever to be issued two intentional walks in a game within the first 21 games of his career.
“It’s part of the game, I guess,” Sanchez said through a translator. “I’m hitting the ball well, so I see why I guess they walked me.”
“It tells you how good he’s swinging, especially with a guy with all the experience behind him, more than 400 home runs, over 1,000 RBIs,” Girardi said. “You don’t see it very often. You really don’t. To me, (Mariners manager) Scott Servais probably has been paying attention to how he’s swinging. It says a lot about him and his ability.”
Girardi became the sixth Yankees manager to reach 800 wins, adding him to an exclusive list that includes Joe McCarthy, Joe Torre, Casey Stengel, Miller Huggins and Ralph Houk.
“I’ve been blessed with a lot of good teams here,” Girardi said. “It’s nice. Let’s get 801.”
Matched up against fellow Japan native Hisashi Iwakuma, Tanaka allowed six hits and one walk – his first in 32 innings – to improve to 11-4, lowering his ERA to 3.11.
The Yankees’ defense helped Tanaka early as Aaron Judge threw out Robinson Cano trying to stretch a single into a double to end the first, then Ronald Torreyes started a nice 5-4-3 double play off Cano’s bat to end the third.
Tanaka went on to retire 12 of the final 14 batters he faced before Tyler Clippard and Dellin Betances (sixth save) closed out the win.
Over the past nine games, Yankees starters are 5-2 with a 2.25 ERA, holding opponents to oneor-zero runs seven times.
The win put the Yankees at 6561, giving them yet another chance on Friday to reach that elusive mark of five games over .500, a level they have yet to hit this season in four attempts. They head home for three games against the Orioles before hitting the road again against Kansas City and Baltimore as they try to chase down the Blue Jays, Red Sox and Orioles.
“I think our guys believe,” Girardi said. “Think about it, we’re in our division and those are a lot of the things that we’re chasing. We’ve got 30 games in our division out of the next 36, so the opportunity is there.”
After Sanchez gave the Yankees a lead in the first, Tyler Austin snapped an 0-for-16 skid in the second with an RBI single to make it 2-0.
Brett Gardner added a sacrifice fly in the fourth, the final run the Yankees scored against Iwakuma.
Teixeira — who was 1-for-4 with an RBI single — wasn’t surprised either time Seattle chose to pitch to him instead of the red-hot rookie.
“I’m hitting .195; of course, you walk him there. Come on,” Teixeira said. “I’ve been intentionally walked a ton of times in my career with really good hitters behind me. Sometimes you get the job done, sometimes you don’t. I got a hit the first time and struck out the second. I’ll take that today.”