Sanchez playoff use may shrink
Gary Sanchez may not just be on the bench when Gerrit Cole is on the mound in the playoffs.
Manager Aaron Boone said Thursday on WFAN it would be a “day-by-day” decision during the postseason when it came to Sanchez and Kyle Higashioka behind the plate and later in the day, made it clear why Sanchez’s starting job was in peril.
“Obviously, performance matters and matchups matter and pairing guys matter,’’ Boone said before the Yankees lost to the Blue Jays, 4-1, in Buffalo, with Higashioka catching Jordan Montgomery and Sanchez not in the lineup.
“I think both will probably play an important role for us if we’re to go deep in this playoff,’’ Boone said of the two catchers.
But Boone still went to Sanchez with the bases loaded in the top of the eighth with the Yankees down by three — and Sanchez nearly made it pay off.
He drilled a ball to deep center, where Randal Grichik caught up to it.
On the year, Sanchez entered Thursday hitting just .143 with an OPS of .615. Though other advanced numbers are somewhat promising, like his exit velocity and barrel rate, they have not resulted in much success.
“It’s important to look at the atbats in the month of September,’’ Boone said after the loss. “A lot more competitive. He can change the game with one swing and he almost did. … He almost won us the game.’’
The numbers when it comes to Cole are especially striking. Higashioka has caught the righthander’s past four starts, and Cole is 3-1 with a 1.00 ERA while giving up just a pair of homers.
In eight games pitching to Sanchez, Cole has a 3.91 ERA and allowed a dozen homers.
Boone wasn’t ready to make any guarantees, despite the hints, saying “nothing is committed right now.”
“It’s hard to predict,’’ Boone said of the situation. “Even though we’re five or six days away from the postseason, that, in a lot of ways, is a long time in baseball. Things happen and change every single day. … I expect both guys to play a role.”
role in the playoffs is undetermined, helped his cause, allowing three runs in 5 ¹/3 innings, striking out eight.
He gave up a homer to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the second, as the Toronto first baseman continued his dominance over the Yankees and gave the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead.
Consecutive two-out doubles by Cavan Biggio and Bo Bichette in the third made it 2-0.
Luke Voit led off the sixth with a single, and Aaron Hicks followed with a broken-bat hit through the right side of the infield. Giancarlo Stanton struck out and Gleyber Torres flied to right to send Voit to third.
But the hot-hitting Gio Urshela grounded to second to end the threat.
Montgomery gave up a one-out single in the sixth before Adam Ottavino entered and allowed another hit to Guerrero and a two-run double to Alejandro Kirk to give Toronto a 4-0 lead.
The Yankees finally broke through in the eighth against right-hander Anthony Bass.
After Hicks and Stanton walked with one out, Torres grounded into a forceout to put runners on the corners for Urshela, whose infield single drove in a run. Clint Frazier followed with a walk to load the bases for Sanchez.
The Yankees failed to rally against Dolis in the ninth.