Yankees lose Sanchez to DL
FALL TO ORIOLES, 5-4
Gary Sanchez leaves game after straining biceps during swing in fifth inning hours after Greg Bird learns he will rest sore right foot for rest of weekend, and then Dellin Betances (inset) suffers 5-4 loss in relief at unbeaten Baltimore on Saturday.
BALTIMORE — Gary Sanchez is headed to the disabled list, James Kaprielian is traveling to Los Angeles for further evaluation and consultation on his oft-injured right elbow and Greg Bird is nursing a right foot ailment. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the Yankees can’t get length from their starters or hold a lead. It’s not even a week into the regular season, and Murphy’s Law has already struck. Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong for the Yankees, who lost their third straight game — and their phenom catcher — on Saturday at Camden Yards. In the fifth inning of a 5-4 defeat at the hands of the Orioles, Sanchez suffered a right biceps strain while swinging and fouling off a 3-2 pitch and will be placed on the 10-day DL. Kyle Higashioka has been summoned from Triple-A Scranton to back up presumed starter Austin Romine. Sanchez will undergo more tests when the team gets back to New York. Last season, he broke his thumb in the minors and missed about 2.5 weeks. The year before, a pulled hamstring kept him out about the same amount of time. In 2016, Phillies starter Vince Velasquez was on the DL for 18 days with a strained right biceps. “It’s not what you want to see,” Joe Girardi said. “The young kid is very talented and he’s done some really good things in his short career, but the other guys will get an opportunity now.” Sanchez is arguably already the face of the franchise, a 24-year-old backstop who can change the game both at the plate and behind it with his cannon of a throwing arm. He hit 20 homers in 53 games as a rookie last season, and went deep for the first time in 2017 on Friday night. Essentially, he’s irreplaceable. Girardi said he’s contemplating potentially putting hothitting Brett Gardner and Jacoby Ellsbury back at the top of the lineup, but that won’t occur on Sunday with the Orioles sending southpaw Wade Miley to the mound.
“It felt kind of like when you pull a hamstring,” Sanchez said through a translator. “It was the same feeling. After I felt it, I tried to do a warmup swing and I couldn’t do it.”
Bird, who got off to a 1-for-16 start at the plate after an eight-homer spring, is considered day-to-day. The 24-year-old first baseman suffered the injury in Clearwater when he fouled a ball off his foot against the Phillies. The Yankees hope to get him back for Monday’s home opener.
However, Kaprielian, the organization’s top pitching prospect, may be out for a significant period of time. Brian Cashman said he’s “very concerned” about the 23-year-old righty, whom the Yankees hoped could fast-track through the farm system and become a contributor later in the year. So much for that, it seems.
The Yankees are hopeful to finally get Didi Gregorius (right shoulder strain) back in the first week of May.
On Friday, they blew a 5-1 lead in what was eventually a 6-5 loss. On Saturday, they blew a 4-1 lead in what was eventually a 5-4 loss. Masahiro Tanaka walked four and hit two batters in a single game for the first time in his career, requiring 92 pitches to navigate through five innings.
Somehow, he managed to leave up 4-3, but Dellin Betances, the major-league leader in WAR among relievers over the past three seasons, surrendered the game-tying single to Mark Trumbo and the go-ahead single to Hyun Soo Kim in the seventh.
Over the first five games, the Yankees’ starters have combined to throw just 21.1 innings, putting too a heavy a burden on their bullpen this early in the season. None of their starters has lasted more than five innings.
“Our starting pitching hasn’t been good,” Cashman said before the game.
The Yankees nearly got to seemingly invincible Orioles closer Zach Britton, but Chris Carter flied out to deep center with a man aboard to end the game.
“It’s frustrating,” Girardi said. “It seems like we’ve been really close in same of these games. A swing here, a pitch there. Chris just missed that last pitch. But that’s baseball and it’ll turn around. We’ve got to keep fighting.”
There are still 157 games left. But few could’ve expected this type of start after the incredible spring the team had.
Maybe the Yankees aren’t expected to make the playoffs. But they certainly wanted to start better than 8-16 like they did in 2016.
They’ve already dug themselves a bit of a hole. And all these injuries and poor outings haven’t helped.