BRING IT HOME!
Sanchez blasts two HRs Tied up heading to Bronx
BOSTON — Gary Sanchez didn’t erase a miserable regular season with two powerful swings Saturday night that sent balls screaming over Fenway Park’s Green Monster.
No amount of home runs can make up for a season in which the Yankees’ catcher landed on the disabled list twice with groin problems, led the majors in passed balls and finished with an embarrassing batting average.
What Sanchez did do was lead the Yankees to a 6-2 win over the Red Sox in Game 2 of the ALDS that was witnessed by a sold-out crowd of 39,151 and evened the best-of-five affair at 1-1.
Game 3 is Monday night at Yankee Stadium, where Luis Severino will start for the Yankees. The Red Sox are deciding between Rick Porcello and Nathan Eovaldi.
“I always stayed positive throughout the whole season. I know it was a rough season for me, it was a tough one,’’ Sanchez said of hitting .186, leading the majors with 18 passed balls and playing in just 89 games.
“But you know, that’s the regular season and that’s done. We are playing the really exciting baseball. So to have an opportunity now to keep on playing and produce at this time it’s actually more important.’’
After Aaron Judge tagged Red Sox starter David Price for a solo homer in the first, Sanchez opened the second with a blast over the Monster. Then with the Yankees leading 3-1 in the seventh, Sanchez crushed a 2-1 pitch to the right of the light tower on top of the Monster. The blast, which linked Sanchez with Yogi Berra as the only two Yankee catchers with multi-homer games in the postseason, was measured at 479 feet.
The Yankees got the series even mostly because of Sanchez’s power, but he had help from Masahiro Tanaka and a bullpen that allowed one run over the final four innings.
Working with his signature split-fingered fastball that had taken a vacation in his final two regular-season starts, Tanaka allowed one run and three hits and issued one walk in five innings.
“I think it was way more consistent compared to the last two games,’’ Tanaka said. “I say this all the time, but it really comes down to mechanics. I feel like I was able to get the sound mechanics back to be able to get that effective splitter back.’’
The Yankees treated Price like they usually do, and it didn’t take long for Red Sox manager Alex Cora to lift the lefty with a terrible postseason résumé that includes a 2-9 ledger in 18 games (10 starts).
“After we won Game 1, to go out there and have the opportunity to (go) up 2-0 and to throw the baseball the way I did, it was definitely tough,’’ Price said. “But my spirits aren’t down, my confidence isn’t down. I am looking forward to getting back out there and getting another opportunity.’’
The Yankees sure hope to see Price again after he gave up three runs, three hits and walked two in 1 2/3 innings.
Sanchez’s two-homer game overshadowed that, in three postseason games, he has handled the defensive side of the job without incident. That impressed Yankees manager Aaron Boone as much as the homers.
“Almost more importantly he’s caught really well,’’ Boone said. “I think he has been really good back there from receiving, blocking and gameplanning. And then tonight was a monster night.’’
Again, it doesn’t wash away a regular season that was terrible. But Sanchez is right: The 162-game grind across six months is finished. Now the only numbers that count are wins in October. Thanks to Sanchez, the Yankees went home 1-1 when 0-2 would have been a death sentence.