GARY GOES BOOM
Switches spots with Judge, pounds two homers, including 493-foot blast
DETROIT — It’s certainly easier to live with Gary Sanchez’s mishaps behind the plate when he’s blasting homers out of the No. 3 hole — and Joe Girardi should continue hitting him there if he keeps this up. Sanchez’s torrid August continued Tuesday night, as he belted homers Nos. 24 and 25 in the Yankees’ 13-4 blowout win over the Tigers at Comerica Park. The first of the 24-yearold catcher’s pair of tworun shots traveled a staggering 493 feet, as the Bombers grabbed a 2-0 lead in the opening frame.
“I think I still got him by two feet,” joked cleanup hitter Aaron Judge, who slugged a 2017 MLB-best 495-foot homer on June 11 against Baltimore. “But that was pretty impressive.” Girardi flip-flopped Judge and Sanchez in the lineup on Tuesday night, and got the desired results.
Sanchez now has 11 homers in his last 24 games — 25 homers in 91 games overall. Imagine if he hadn’t missed 21 games earlier in the season due to a right biceps injury. Clearly, he looks like the rookie standout who mashed 20 homers in just 53 games in 2016.
“He was due,” Girardi said. “That’s who he is. He has that ability in a sense to carry a club. He’s that good.”
Sanchez’s sophomore campaign hasn’t been without its hiccups. His manager has certainly gotten on him about his
inability to block pitches in the dirt on more than one occasion — the low point coming after a passed ball on Aug. 4 led to an Aug. 6 benching and a clear message that his defense needed to improve. But Sanchez has been able to make up for it in other ways, with his laser-rocket throwing arm and game-calling ability. And, of course, his lethal bat. “Really well,” Girardi said of Sanchez’s recent improvement as a backstop. “I think he’s done a really good job back there.”
Said Todd Frazier: “He’s quiet, he goes about it the right way. Everybody talks about his defense, but he’s working. I saw him in ‘the kitchen’ working for about an hour with one of the coaches, showing what he’s doing right and what he’s doing wrong.”
The Yankees have been looking for someone to get hot with Judge in a second-half slump. The 25-yearold rookie, who came in hitting .169 since the All-Star break, didn’t strike out for the first time since July 7, however, going 1-for-1 with an RBI and three walks. His MLB-record 37game strikeout streak is over, no longer a topic of conversation after Girardi pinch-hit for him in the seventh inning.
And the Bombers can only benefit from the eventual returns of Greg Bird, Starlin Castro and Matt Holliday – all of whom are currently on minor-league rehab assignments.
“I feel pretty good right now,” Sanchez said. “I’ve been working really hard to improve, and right now I’m getting really good results.”
Sanchez’s bomb off Matt Boyd went way out to left, prompting MLB’s tracking device Statcast to seemingly malfunction for a bit. “When I hit that ball, I hit it well. But I had no clue that it went that far,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez never gets cheated – even if he does think Judge is more powerful.
“He has way more power than me,” Sanchez said. “That’s not up for debate here. I don’t even think I can hit another ball like that again. The comparison is not really there.”
What’s also not up for debate is Sanchez continuing to hit in the No. 3 hole.
Judge carried the Yankees in the first half. And El Gary carrying them to the finish line – one they hope culminates in a trip to the playoffs.