Yanks put Gary back in lineup
BUFFALO — There were no immediate results for Gary Sanchez. The Yankees' struggling catcher was back in the lineup Tuesday night after being benched for two nights, but the results looked much the same. Sanchez went 0-for-4 with a strikeout in the Yankees' 2-1 loss to the Blue Jays at Sahlen Field.
“I thought he had good at-bats and got off some good swings tonight, just didn't get any results for it,” Boone said, “but I thought he looked pretty good.”
Boone reached the point where he could not keep sending Sanchez out there on Saturday night. Sanchez homered in the series opener against the Orioles (the Yankees' only win in Baltimore), then struck out seven straight times. That was the final straw, and it was all too common of a scene this year. Sanchez has struck out 48 times in 100 at-bats this season. He has 13 hits — seven of which are home runs — and 15 RBI and 11 walks.
“It has definitely been tough for me not to be able to get the rhythm that I would like at the box,” Sanchez said through Yankees interpreter Marlon Abreu. “We've had a lot of injuries and a lot of our teammates have been down for a while and you know, not not being able to achieve it and help the team in the box. It's been hard. I think I've done a good job behind the plate, but there's definitely been situations where I've wanted to help. And I haven't been able to do that consistently.”
Sanchez is a power hitter who has twice hit over 30 home runs in a season. As a rookie, he hit 20 in 53 games and GM Brian Cashman gave him the nickname “The Kraken.”
Those times, however, have been interspersed with defensive mistakes and slumps. This slump, however, was so epic that the organization had to act.
Boone said he called umpire Brennan Miller last year to apologize. The fill-in umpire had been called up from Triple-A last July when Boone got in his face, mostly to protect Brett Gardner who was about to get tossed. The rant, in which Boone called his hitters “savages in the box,” went viral.
“It was somewhat of an apology and I never wanted to disparage anyone …. those things usually aren't personal for me. And it is a little bit of a product of obviously a hot mic that I didn't expect that made it as big a deal as it was.”
Miller is one of the umpires filling in this season for the senior umpires who opted out of the COVID-19 season. He was behind home plate for the Yankees' game against the Blue Jays Tuesday night.