Catcher’s appalling lack of urgency enough to unnerve even biggest supporters
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A self-help best-seller by Gary Sanchez, coming soon to a Kindle near you:
“How To Offend Your Defenders.”
Bookends of epic Sanchez laziness defined the Yankees’ 7-6 loss to the Rays on Monday night at Tropicana Field, and the onus falls on rookie manager Aaron Boone to fix this. The Yankees have now dropped five straight games to pesky Tampa Bay, and thanks to the Red Sox’s 5-3 victory over the horrid Orioles, the Yankees (63-35) now trail the Sawx (71-31) by six games in the AL East, their largest deficit since April.
Sanchez, the Yankees’ muchmaligned catcher, kicked off the game’s scoring with a mind-blowing display of defensive ineptitude, and he concluded the game altogether by not busting it out of the batter’s box. A mind-blowing sandwich of apathy.
“You learn a lot in this game, and this [is] one of those instances where you learn from it,” Sanchez said through an interpreter. “You put it behind, and you look forward to tomorrow.”
First of all, it was two instances, technically. Second of all, if Sanchez hasn’t learned previously from such episodes, what will prompt him to learn now?
Let’s start with the finish. With the bases loaded and two outs in the ninth, Sanchez hit a bullet to second baseman Daniel Robertson on the shortstop side of second base. Robertson flipped it to shortstop Willy Adames, who hustled to second yet couldn’t beat Aaron Hicks to the bag. The game looked tied — until Adames threw to first to get the slow-asmolasses Sanchez, who didn’t come close to busting it, prompting the fired-up Rays to burst out of the dugout in excitement.
“I think I could’ve done a better
job for sure there running,” Sanchez said. “I hit the ball well. And the play developed. When I saw the runner safe at second base, I tried to beat the play. I couldn’t.”
“I’d have to watch that,” Boone said. “But he’s got to find his gait quickly, and he should be able to do that now.”
The manager added: “I want him running at that smooth clip that I’ve talked to you guys about. And part of that is getting out of the box.”
You’d think Sanchez would be motivated enough to make amends for his sin in the first inning: the rare two-base passed ball.
Luis Severino’s first-inning, twoout, 1-and-2 slider to former Yankee Ji-Man Choi crossed up Sanchez, hit the catcher’s right leg and ricocheted toward foul territory on the third-base side. As Sanchez dawdled after the ball, with Severino showing only a modicum of interest in covering home plate, the Rays’ Jake Bauers, who began the pitch on second base, read the situation perfectly and turned on the jets as he touched third, booking toward an unoccupied plate.
Sanchez sped up to grab the ball and unleashed an off-balance throw … which hit Bauers as he dove headfirst into home for the game’s opening run, A cheap run in a one-run Yankees loss, one that prompted Sanchez and Severino to have an animated discussion in the top of the second about what went wrong. Severino took responsibility after the game.
“That’s another instance there where if I would have done a better job of being quicker getting that ball, we should have a chance to get him out at home,” Sanchez said. “That’s my fault.”
“He should be able to get after it. He’s here and back,” Boone said, alluding to the right groin strain that recently sidelined Sanchez. “He should be fine getting after things. It’s another thing I’ve got to look at.”
Sanchez’s supporters always could point to the trade-off he brings: elite hitting for his position in return for poor hands on defense (he tied the Angels’ Martin Maldonado and the White Sox’s Omar Narvaez for the ma- jor league lead with 10 passed balls) and uninspired base running. Monday’s mishaps weren’t just about Sanchez’s bad hands or legs, though. They spoke to a clear and present lack of effort that we all saw.
Just as we talk about Lyndon B. Johnson losing Walter Cronkite’s support of the Vietnam War as a turning point, Sanchez lost the statheads Monday. To win them back, it’ll start with trying much, much harder when it really matters. Can he handle that?