BABY RUTH!
Summer of Sanchez rolls on as he homers AGAIN , his 11th, as Yanks bash Birds
Rookie Gary Sanchez cannot be stopped, and neither can the Yankees, who rout Orioles, 13-5, and pull within 2.5 games of playoff spot.
It only seems as if the Yankees are scoring all of their runs these days on Gary Sanchez home runs.
Starlin Castro and Didi Gregorius pulled off a rare double steal to put the Yanks ahead for good in the third inning of Saturday’s 13-5 win over Baltimore, with the aid of a two-minute video review.
“I think we’re more athletic now, there’s more team speed, and you’re able to do some different things,” Joe Girardi said.
Both players said the play wasn’t called from the dugout, although Castro indicated that he “had a green light” from Girardi to steal in that situation.
With runners on first and third and two outs, Castro broke for second and beat catcher Matt Wieters’ bounced throw. Gregorius took off for the plate and initially was ruled out by ump Ron Kulpa. But MLB’s video review officials determined that the Yankee shortstop’s right hand touched the plate with a twisting, headfirst slide before he was tagged by a diving Wieters.
“I knew right away (that I was safe),” Gregorius said. “He tagged me on the stomach, but he didn’t get me on the hand.”
Before the game, Baltimore manager Buck Showalter had lamented his team’s lack of recent success on video reviews. On his list was what fully appeared to be an incorrect call Friday night on a play at second base, when Chris Davis appeared to beat Gregorius’ tag following a throw from right fielder Aaron Judge. “That’s about nine of those this year. Can somebody help me with that?” Showalter said. “That’s what I thought. How does that happen? You kind of scratch your head and go, ‘Can I get an explanation of why they missed it?’...It doesn’t get much more obvious than that (Friday) night.”
The double steal wasn’t the only highlight of the game for the Yankees’ middle infielders. Castro finished 4-for-6 with a home run and three RBI, while Gregorius added two hits and a seasonhigh three runs scored.
“Everybody’s together. Everybody’s trying to do his job… Everybody is trying to help the team win and I think we end up in a pretty good
mode,” Castro said after the Yanks moved 2.5 games behind Baltimore for the second AL wild-card spot. “If we keep playing like we’re playing right now, we have a chance.
“We never quit, we just continue playing like we play and come in here and play hard every day.”